


I Won't Hurt You

by bakerbaker7



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alpha Lexa, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Met on the Ark, F/F, Fluff, G!p Lexa, HSAU, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Clarke, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Protective Lexa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:41:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 50,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6658108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakerbaker7/pseuds/bakerbaker7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lexa Woods lives in Walden, the poorest section of the Ark. She grew up around violence, drugs, and gangs but still finished her sophomore year of high school with perfect scores. This enables her a spot in the most academically challenging high school in Arcadia, the wealthiest section of the Ark. Even though Lexa is a very strong Alpha, she has been raised to treat everyone equally and with respect, something that immediately catches Clarke's eye.</p><p>Clarke Griffin lives in Arcadia and attends Arcadia Prep high school, the hardest school on the entire Ark to get into. She thrives under the protection of her family and friends, but she knows her luck won't hold out forever. She is an Omega, and her parents have warned her about how dangerous Alphas can be, especially to an unmated Omega like herself. She thinks all Alphas are dangerous, until she met Lexa Woods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know prologues are usually boring, but this is important to read if you want to understand the story better.

I decided to make a prologue to explain more of the setting, plot, and statuses of the characters in the story. For this story, I’ve mixed my own ideas and personal experiences with the characters and settings of the 100 T.V show and the book by Kass Morgan. I hope this helps clear up some of the questions I was getting in my comments, and feel free to keep leaving comments with questions about the story, characters, whatever, I really love reading and replying to them.

The Ark in this story is a little different from how the Ark was portrayed in the book or showed in the T.V show. It is still in space, and the world was still destroyed from the nuclear apocalypse 97 years ago. This Ark is a lot bigger, like a lot bigger. According to the 100 wiki, the population of the Ark in the T.V show was 2,658. The population on this Ark is probably around 100,000. I imagined it as big as the ship in the movie WALL-E, if you’ve ever seen that. It is also more open and more aesthetically pleasing than the Ark in the show or book, not just connecting metal hallways and rooms. It is made to look sort of like earth, with roads and buildings and vehicles. Most vehicles are owned by people in Arcadia, but there are a select few in Walden who own small cars or motorcycles like Anya does.

I used Walden from the book. In the book, Walden is the poorest section of the Ark, so I decided to use that in the story and make it where Lexa is from. Arcadia I got from the show. I used Arcadia because that’s the skaikru's camp in the show, so I called the wealthier section of the Ark Arcadia. There are three sections on the Ark in my story: Walden, Arcadia, and another smaller section that will be identified in a later chapter.

The statuses of the people are simple. Betas and Alphas hold most of the high-ranking, high-income jobs like government officials, lawyers, or surgeons. Abby’s mom, who will be introduced briefly in chapter 3, is an Alpha and works as a surgeon. Professor Kane, who is Lexa’s Global History teacher, is a Beta. I imagined most of the teachers in the school as Betas, which is why they are so oblivious to Omega-Alpha interactions.

Omegas are able to hold high-ranking jobs, but it is very rare. Clarke wants to follow in her mom’s footsteps and become a surgeon, but is afraid she won’t be considered good enough because she is an Omega, even though she is very smart. Lexa will help her though, of course.

Alphas are known to treat Omegas very badly on the Ark. They are aggressive, rude, and self-centered, taking what they want without consent. Omegas growing up are taught to submit to Alphas and to be cautious around them, especially in heats. Lexa has been taught almost the exact opposite by Anya, to treat all Omegas with respect and to treat your partner/mate as your equal. Before attending Arcadia High School, Lexa thought Omega's were only treated badly in Walden, but she quickly learns she is wrong by the way Omega's act towards her in school.

I hope this helps everyone understand the setting/storyline/statuses a little better. As I write more chapters, I might add more to this, but it just depends on how the rest of the story plays out.


	2. New School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is the official first chapter.We learn about Lexa, she starts her first day of school, she runs into Clarke (literally), becomes friends with Raven, and Lexa and Professor Kane are bros. Let me know what you think :)

Lexa wakes up to her alarm clock blaring.

Groaning, she lazily rolls over and turns it off.

It’s Monday, and Lexa absolutely _despises _going to school on Mondays. And the fact that this will be Lexa’s first day at Ark Academy does nothing to motivate the still-slumbering Alpha.__

Five minutes after Lexa’s alarm clock goes off, her older Alpha sister Anya barges into her room to find Lexa still sprawled across her mattress, with a pillow wrapped tightly around her face.

“Get up, you need to go to school today” Anya says, while trying not to roll her eyes from the groaning coming from underneath the pillow.

“Can’t I just skip this week?” Lexa mumbles.

“I can’t understand you, take the damn pillow off of your face.”

Lexa removes the pillow with a dramatic groan.

“Can’t I just skip this week? The first couple of weeks are always just review anyway.”

Anya gives her a sympathetic gaze.

“You already missed your first week because your old school didn’t send in your transcript on time. I don’t think Ark Academy would take kindly to you missing another week for no apparent reason.”

Lexa sighs, but eventually throws the covers off her lithe form and stands. She takes three long minutes to stretch her body, which is stiff and cramped from sleeping in a bed the towering Alpha outgrew years ago.

Anya stays and watches with her arms crossed, making sure Lexa doesn’t go back to sleep. It’s not until the brunette finally pads into the bathroom that she leaves to go start breakfast. Halfway down the hall, she hears a loud thump coming from Lexa’s room, followed by a grunt.

As gifted and coordinated as Lexa is, she’s also extremely clumsy.

“That idiot.” Anya chuckles and shakes her head. 

\-----

“How’re you feeling this morning, champ?” Anya asks as Lexa trudges into the kitchen. Her curly brown hair is still damp from the shower, and she’s dressed in a simple loose t-shirt and baggy jeans. A typical Lexa outfit.

Lexa frowns at the nickname. “Anya, that’s what you used to call me when I was five.”

Anya raises an eyebrow. “And? You’re still a champ to me.”

Lexa rolls her eyes, but Anya can see her trying to suppress a smile as she helps herself to a plate of pancakes and bacon.

“Thanks for making breakfast this morning, An.”

“No problem. You have a big day today, so I figured you could use an extra boost.”

Lexa winces at Anya’s words, but quickly regains her composure. To anyone else it would have gone unnoticed, but Anya knows Lexa like the back of her hand.

And something is obviously wrong. The fact that Lexa has barely touched the food on her plate only increases Anya’s worry.

“Hey Lex, what’s wrong?” Anya asks in a soft voice.

Lexa grits her teeth and tightens her grip on her fork. “Nothing, I’m fine.”

“Lex, you know you can tell me any-”

“I said I’m fine!” Lexa shouts, her pheromones hitting Anya full-force.

Anya swallows and averts her eyes, hoping her submission will be enough for Lexa to calm down. But the blonde Alpha doesn’t find out because once she looks up, Lexa has already retreated to her room. Anya sighs and moves to clean up Lexa’s uneaten breakfast.

It’s in small outbursts like these that Anya can really see their father in Lexa, and this scares her more than anything. Their father was known for his short temper, and unfortunately it’s a trait Lexa inherited from him. The younger Alpha has gotten in trouble many times for letting her anger get the best of her, and Anya hopes going to this new school will help calm her temper rather than instigate it.

She hears footsteps behind her, and Anya turns around to find Lexa standing in front of her, eyes glassy and mouth trembling.

“Lexa? What’s wrong?”

The younger Alpha doesn’t answer, but instead envelops Anya into a tight hug.

Anya hears Lexa whimper “I’m sorry” into her hair, so she wraps her arms tighter around the younger Alpha. Lexa isn’t fond of affectionate touch, and rarely lets Anya hug her. Even though she’s a very strong, dominant Alpha, she’s uncharacteristically emotional and sensitive, which are traits she definitely inherited from her mother.

“Hey Lex?” Anya says gently, wanting to get the Alpha’s attention before delivering her motivational speech.

Lexa nods against her chest, letting Anya know she’s listening.

“You belong at this school Lex, I can feel it. You’re so smart, practically a genius. And you don’t even study! I don’t know how you do it.” Anya praises.

Lexa sniffles before awkwardly removing herself from Anya’s embrace.

“It’s not the academics I’m worried about. Everyone’s already been in school a week and will already have made their cliques. No one wants to be friends with a tall, lanky Alpha, and you know how much I suck at small talk.”

Anya bits her lip to refrain from making a sarcastic comment, because unfortunately Lexa does suck at small talk. She had been a bumbling fool around her first crush. And her second. And her third. But Anya doesn’t remind Lexa of that.

“It doesn’t matter Lexa. Those girls you liked weren’t good for you anyway. I’m pretty sure all the Omega’s at your school were prostitutes.”

It’s the truth. If you’re an Omega that lives in Walden, being a prostitute is the easiest and quickest way to make money. But that doesn’t mean that Lexa wants to _date_ one.

The brunette Alpha is still frowning, so Anya goes in to deliver the punch.

“I’m sure you’ll meet a sweet Omega girl who’s outgoing and bubbly and doesn’t mind that you don’t talk much. She’s out there Lexa, I promise. And I have a good feeling that you’ll meet her at this school.”

Lexa is smiling at Anya’s description, and her smile widens when Anya reaches into her pocket and throws her motorcycle keys at Lexa.

Lexa looks down at them in disbelief.

“Are you serious?”

Anya laughs at Lexa’s awed expression.

“Yes I’m serious, you goof. Just don’t scratch her, alright?”

“I won’t, don’t worry,” Lexa grabs at Anya’s arm, “but hey, how are you going to get to work?”

Anya rips her arm out of Lexa’s grasp and whirls around with a joking snarl.

“I’ll just walk. Geez, do you think now that I’ve hit 20 I’m a cripple?”

Lexa’s eyes widen in surprise, and she throws her hands up in surrender.

“I was just trying to be a concerned sister, but whatever.”

Anya watches as Lexa ungracefully plops down on the floor to put on her shoes. She chooses her worn out Air Jordan’s, and Anya rolls her eyes because that’s what she _always_ wears.

Lexa’s definitely more of a comfort over style gal.

The younger Alpha’s movements are slow and methodical, and Anya can tell she’s trying to stall her departure as much as possible.

“Lexa you need to go, or you’re going to be late. No one will see you show up on my motorcycle looking like a badass if classes have already started.”

This gets Lexa up and moving. She grabs her backpack and favorite snapback before rushing out the door and throwing a confident smirk back at Anya.

“That’s my girl.” Anya whispers.

A minute later she hears her motorcycle engine roaring to life, and then it is gone.

\-----

Riding her sister’s motorcycle to school helps Lexa feel a little better, but not enough to make the butterflies in her stomach go away. She tries to focus on the air whipping in her face, or the firm leather handlebars she’s gripping tightly in her palm; anything that doesn’t have to do with school.

It’s not that Lexa doesn’t like school. She usually doesn’t mind it, and she’s always exceled in it. Her old school was never a challenge, and Lexa would come home complaining to Anya about how bored she is during the day. Even though she was enrolled in the best school in Walden, it was no match to Lexa’s intelligence.

Eventually, Anya got tired of Lexa’s complaints and made a meeting with the principle to talk about transferring Lexa to a school with a more rigorous curriculum. After looking at her grades, the principle agreed, and that’s how Lexa ended up enrolled at Arcadia Academy, the hardest school on the Ark to get into.

Deep down, Lexa’s excited at the prospect of finally being challenged academically, but it is drowned out by her fear of change.

Lexa was sort of a loner at her school, but she didn’t mind. Alphas made fun of her quiet tendencies, and because of how good she was to Omegas. Whereas most Alphas think it’s cool to objectify and disrespect Omegas, Lexa is the exact opposite. Her mother, and even Anya had taught her at a young age to treat Omegas as equals, and Lexa has always done just that.

When she reaches the gates separating Walden from Arcadia, she pulls out her school pass so that the guard will let her go through. She’s only been into Arcadia a couple of times, all being when she was young, so her hazy memory does no justice to the sight she’s greeted with when the gates are opened. Darkness turns to light as she drives further into the glowing district of Arcadia.

She feels like she’s in a dream, and almost manages to believe she’s living in a normal neighborhood on the ground. But one whiff of the air brings her hurtling back to reality. The air in Arcadia is definitely more filtered than the air in Walden, but Lexa can still smell the putrid, metallic stench of rusted metal.

It’s not hard for her to find Arcadia Academy. There are signs advertising the prep school strategically placed all throughout Arcadia, helping her gracefully navigate the winding streets until she’s pulling into the school parking lot.

The sight of the massive building takes her breath away. There are no words in the English language that can properly describe the magnificence and prestige of the architecture and design. Lexa has never seen anything like it.

She hasn’t even been inside, and she already knows it will be the nicest building she’s ever been in. She hasn’t even been inside, and she already feels unworthy.

Lexa parks the motorcycle in one of the only available spots left, which happens to be one of the farthest spots from the school. Cursing the fact that she lives so far away, Lexa quickly jogs up to the front entrance.

There aren’t any people hanging around outside the building, which is odd to Lexa. At her old school, people always hung out outside before class started, so their clothes wouldn’t smell like the weed they’d been smoking when they got into the classroom.

Lexa guesses that isn’t the case here.

To calm her nerves, Lexa counts the white, polished stairs until she’s standing in front of two mahogany doors with handles bigger than her head.

She takes a deep breath.

“You got this Lexa.”

The Alpha repeats this mantra over and over to herself until she feels confident enough to open the door. She grips the brass handles, opens the doors, and walks inside.

\-----

The amount of new pheromones that hit her are overwhelming. Unknown Alpha, Beta, and Omega scents surround her, momentarily making her dizzy and off-balance. She’s quickly pulled into the circulating current of students, all trying to elbow their way towards their destination.

Finding the main office is a breeze, mostly because her height allows her to easily read the signs explaining how to get there. She notices that she seems to be the tallest Alpha in the hallway, and puffs her chest out at the thought.

But looking around further, she sees people starting to give her weird looks, and Lexa realizes it’s because of how she’s dressed. Most everyone is wearing nice, casual clothing that fits nicely, whereas Lexa is dressed in loose, faded clothes that make her instantly stand out in the crowded hallway. Lexa tries not to let the unwanted attention bother her.

As Lexa passes more people in her hunt for the main office, she tries to pick out any attractive female Omegas. Her search is abruptly ended when she feels herself collide with an unknown object, leaving her dazed and sprawled out on the floor.

Everyone instantly starts laughing, and Lexa is humiliated, until she sees another person lying on the floor in front of her. All her embarrassment quickly turns into concern for this stranger, who she may have accidently knocked unconscious because of her clumsiness.

She pulls herself up quickly, moving faster when she sees it’s a girl. When Lexa gets within two feet of her, the unmistakable scent of an Omega hits her like an avalanche. She smells heavenly, and her sweet scent causes an unwanted reaction from Lexa’s nether regions. The Alpha gulps before kneeling in front of the girl.

The Omega looks up slowly, disoriented at first, but when their gazes meet for the first time Lexa can feel the air disappear from her lungs. Her eyes are like a blue kaleidoscope, changing from a shimmering aqua to a depressing deep blue in a millisecond. Lexa is mesmerized for a moment, before realizing they’re still in the middle of the hallway blocking traffic.

She snaps out of her love-struck daze and holds her hand out to the Omega. The girl smiles shyly at Lexa and is about to reach out her hand when Lexa sees her take a small sniff of the Alpha’s pheromones.

The Omega freezes and looks up at the Alpha with such an intense fear that Lexa’s immediate instinct is to purr and soothe her, make her not afraid of Lexa’s presence. But she doesn’t give Lexa a chance.

She quickly stumbles to her feet and barely manages to stutter out "I'm s-so s-sorry" before she’s racing down the hall and around a corner.

Lexa’s grateful no one’s paying attention to her anymore, because if they were they would witness the rare site of the Alpha standing rooted to the ground in shock. It’s not until the bell rings that Lexa finally comes to her senses and rushes to the main office.

\-----

Once Lexa finally gets to the main office, the lady at the desk tells her the first bell always signals homeroom, not the start of the first class. The brunette lets out a sigh of relief. She’s still a little stunned from her encounter with the blue-eyed Omega, so she doesn’t pay attention to a word the office lady says while explaining Lexa’s schedule and locker combination.

She nods every once in a while to make her think she understands, but the truth is that Lexa has no idea what the lady is talking about.

Ten minutes later Lexa is back out in the hallway trying to navigate her way to her first class of the day, which is Global History in room 112. The bell signaling the end of homeroom has already rung, meaning Lexa has four minutes to make it to class before she’s late.

Luckily for her, Lexa hears some Beta students in front of her talking about a history assignment due today, so the Alpha picks up her pace to keep up with them. They end up walking into a room with a sign over the door that reads ‘Welcome to Global History’ and Lexa sighs in relief.

She stealthily enters the classroom and snags a desk in the back of the classroom before the professor turns around to face the students. As soon as the bell rings, the lights dim and a huge overhead projector comes whirring to life above her.

The next hour is filled with detailed descriptions of Earth before the nuclear apocalypse. Names of countries and people long dead. Geographical maps saved from destruction. Videos of ancient wars and battle strategies. Lexa’s pencil scribbles across the page of her crumpled notebook, trying to capture every word the professor says.

By the end of the class, her mind is fried. Lexa has never felt so challenged and overwhelmed in her life, leaving her in a barely functioning zombie-like state. Before she can escape, the professor spots her and calls Lexa over to his desk.

Lexa absentmindedly twiddles her thumbs, a habit she only does when she’s nervous. The Alpha doesn’t understand why she’s so anxious, because she’s done nothing wrong.

Once she reaches his rather large mahogany desk, he stands up and greets her in the same relaxing but stoic voice that was used during his lesson.

“You must be Alexandria, the new girl?”

Lexa smiles politely through gritted teeth and tries not to wince at the use of her full name.

“Yes sir, but just Lexa is preferred.”

“My apologies Lexa, though I do understand your distaste for full names. My real name is Marcus, but I much prefer being called Marc by my friends and associates.”

Lexa just nods, because she can almost guarantee that her reason for hating her first name is entirely different and much more traumatic than his.

He gives her a textbook to use throughout the year and explains that she doesn’t need to make up any of the work she missed the past week due to her absence. Lexa thanks him profusely at that, because balancing make-up work and present assignments is extremely hard and tedious.

Kane doesn’t keep her any longer because she needs to get going, and gives Lexa directions to her next class, Bio-engineering in room 218.

The Alpha flashes him a gracious smile before leaving the room and entering the crowded and confusing hallway. Once again she immediately has everyone’s attention. Omegas nervously rush past her with their heads down, Betas gawk at her, and every Alpha puffs out their chest to try to prove their dominance over her.

One whiff of the air tells Lexa that she is still definitely the strongest Alpha, and she allows a confident smirk to overtake her features.

The bell rings when she’s still a few feet away from her next class, and she mutters curses under her breath. The door is still open, and Lexa prays the teacher is facing away from the students so she could attempt to sneak in.

But luck must not be on her side anymore, because the teacher looks up at the exact second Lexa enters the room.

And you must be the new student! I’m Ms. Harper, I teach Bio-engineering. What’s your name dear?

This teacher is entirely too chipper for Lexa’s liking, mostly because she’s still brain dead from Kane’s lesson. She’s also on edge because the whole class is staring at her, making Lexa extremely uncomfortable under their intense gazes.

She clears her throat before saying “Lexa Woods”, smiles slightly when she realized she didn’t stutter. Ms. Harper smiles and hands her a textbook that is exponentially larger than the history textbook she was given.

“In this class it is required that you sit with a partner at all times for collaboration on labs and assignments. You can have a seat next to Miss Reyes in the back. Raven can you raise your hand please?”

Lexa eventually sees a young-looking brunette girl with a faded red bandana around her head timidly raise her hand. The Alpha quickly makes her way over to her new seat, eager to get out of the spotlight. Lexa is so focused, she doesn’t pick up on the fear and anxiety painted over Raven’s face.

Lexa gets a good look at her new bio partner before sitting down. Raven has dark brown hair that’s tied up in a messy ponytail, and wide hazel eyes that just barely peek out from under her bandana. Her skin has a nice olive complexion, making her a little bit lighter than Lexa.

What really catches Lexa’s attention is the bulky brace the brunette is wearing on her right leg. It looks really uncomfortable and Lexa immediately feels sorry for the girl, but doesn’t show it because Raven probably wouldn’t appreciate pity from a stranger. Lexa glides into her seat and accidently brushes her partner’s shoulder, making Raven nearly jump out of her seat with nerves.

Once Lexa is settled into her new seat, she sniffs the air for any stronger Alpha pheromones than her own, but can only sense distressed Omega pheromones coming off in waves right next to her. She looks over at Raven to see her hands shaking in her lap, and her breathing frantic, desperately trying to hide the fact that she is terrified of the tall, dominant Alpha who just invaded her space.

Lexa never thought she’d see an Omega this scared in Arcadia, because the Omegas here are supposed to be treated a lot better than the Omegas are in Walden. But remembering the gorgeous blue-eyed Omega’s reaction to Lexa, and now Raven’s reaction, Lexa realizes Omegas are mistreated here too, but probably in a more discrete and secretive manner.

Lexa has never felt more grateful to be an Alpha. She has seen the way most Omegas are treated, and it makes her determined to be a different kind of Alpha. An Alpha that Omega’s don’t need to fear or serve, and one that is respectful, gentle, and loving.

Positively determined to quell some of the Raven’s fear, Lexa starts pumping out as many soothing pheromones as she can.

Moments later, Raven must finally notice Lexa’s efforts because her breathing slows and her body steadies. Lexa patiently watches as the Omega slowly opens her eyes and curiously turns her head to peek at Lexa. When she sees Lexa is already looking at her, Raven quickly averts her eyes and starts twiddling her thumbs.

Lexa chuckles at this, because is exactly what she does when she’s nervous and doesn’t have anything to do with her hands.

Raven looks up incredulously when she hears Lexa chuckle, and this time she doesn’t turn away when her eyes meet Lexa’s. Lexa gives her a small smile, and Raven shyly returns it.

It’s not much, but it’s a start. Lexa turns to face Ms. Harper tries to pay attention for the rest of the bell.

\-----

Lexa only has one class left, and is currently eating lunch alone in the cafeteria.

Before lunch, she was absolutely sure nothing in this school could impress her any more than what she’s already witnessed, but she was pleasantly surprised.

The cafeteria doesn’t remind her of anything, because it’s like nothing she’s ever seen before. The entire interior is made of polished white marble, and is so clean that Lexa can see her reflection on the walls. Thick columns line every other table, and a huge statue and fountain rests at the very center of the enormous room.

The cafeteria makes her feel inadequate, something she hasn’t stopped feeling since she entered the school. Lexa wonders if her feelings of inadequacy will ever go away. One glance down at her clothes again has her thinking they probably won’t.

When Lexa had arrived there were many tables already full, but there were also a bunch of empty ones. After making a quick scan for familiar faces from her previous classes, she opted to sit alone and get a head start on her homework, which she had already accumulated a lot of.

She had finished her small lunch within the first ten minutes of her lunch period, and her stomach is still rumbling as she finishes up the last problem of her calculus homework. Lexa is used to the small lunches Anya packs, because she knows her sister can’t afford to buy enough food to fill both of them up for every meal. At her old school this didn’t bother her, but now Lexa knows her last class of the day will always be a challenge due to lack of brain power.

She stores her calculus homework safely in her backpack and pulls out her class schedule. Lexa has looked at it all throughout the day, but has not been able to completely understand it. At her old school, she had the same eight classes every day, but here they had what was called ‘block scheduling.’

From what Lexa could deduce this meant that instead of having eight classes a day, there were only four and switched each day. Lexa had mixed feelings about this so far because although it made the homework load easier, classes were a lot longer than they normally would be.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Lexa had Global History, Bio-engineering, Calculus, and Art History. Tuesdays and Thursdays she had World Languages, Literature, Chemistry, and Gym. Lexa was tucking her schedule back into her pocket when the bell rang signaling the end of lunch. After Calculus, Lexa had found her Art History classroom so she wouldn't have to worry about finding it after lunch in the crowded hallways.

This proves to be worth-while when ends up being the first to arrive. She selects a seat in the back corner, for Art History didn’t really peak her interest. She had to pick two elective classes out of a short list the office lady gave her, and she had picked gym in a heartbeat. The remaining three were Economics, Chorus, and Art History. She has no use for economics, and she can’t sing to save her life, so she picked Art History, figuring she could use it as a study hall or nap time.

Her classmates slowly start to trickle in, most of them Betas. The hall is nearly silent by the time the bell rings, apart from the consistent footsteps of stragglers rushing to class. Right as the teacher is about to close the door, two students, an Alpha and an Omega, come rushing into the room. She can’t see their faces, but can clearly see the stern look on the teacher’s face.

Lexa, indifferent to the interaction about to take place, closes her eyes and tries to settle into a comfortable position.

Then the Omega spoke.

“I’m sorry we were late Mrs. Green, it won’t happen again.”

Lexa snaps her eyes open. _She knows that voice._

Lexa squints in order to get a closer look at the Omega and quickly realizes it is the same girl she knocked over this morning with the kaleidoscope blue eyes.

Her heart starts thumping erratically in her chest, and desire for this girl sparks through her entire being.

Lexa is so entranced she almost misses Mrs. Green’s reply.

“Well I’d hope not Clarke, since you claim this is your favorite class.” Clarke blushes and gives the teacher a bashful look, which makes Lexa nearly melt from how cute she looks. “Why don’t you and Wells head to your seats.”

Lexa watches in awe as Clarke and the Alpha called Wells make their way over to two empty desks right in front of her. Lexa can tell Clarke doesn’t notice her because she remains at ease, laughing hysterically at something Wells said. She playfully touches his arm and Lexa almost lets out a low growl at the contact.

 _“No!”_ Lexa scolds herself. She will not be a possessive kind of Alpha, especially towards an Omega that isn’t even hers. But the more she watches the lighthearted interaction between Clarke and Wells, the more upset she gets.

_Of course she would already be with another Alpha. What chance could she possibly have with this beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed Omega?_

Lexa doesn’t even know her, and Clarke is already terrified of her. The thought makes the Alpha dejectedly slump in her seat.

Mrs. Green starts class, and Lexa doesn’t even bother trying to take a nap. Her senses are overloaded with Clarke; her pure scent, smooth alabaster skin, and silky blonde tresses.

It is clear right away to Lexa that Clarke likes Art History because every time Mrs. Green asks the class a question, Clarke is always the first to raise her hand. Every time she answers a question correctly (which is most of the time), she does a little fist pump to the side, and Lexa thinks its adorable.

The bell rings all too soon, and Lexa almost whines when Clarke and Wells get up to leave. Something about Clarke’s presence had a soothing and positive effect on her. The most peaceful and confidant she’d felt all day was in Art History class, and the moment Clarke is gone those feelings are stripped away from her.

She eventually leaves the class and walks down the hall with her head down, not in the mood to entertain people’s stares. She walks aimlessly for a while until her feet decide to bring her to the Global History classroom.

Professor Kane looks up from his desk when Lexa enters, and gives her the most genuine smile she’s seen all day.

“Hey Lexa, how was your first day?”

The Alpha shrugs her shoulders and refuses to meet the professor’s eye.

“It was ….interesting. A lot different from my old school. Definitely harder. I feel like I’m actually learning things now.”

Kane beams.

“Well that’s excellent! I would find going to school very boring if I didn’t learn new things every day.”

Lexa wasn’t sure if he was talking about school now or when he was a teenager, but Lexa doesn’t question it.

“Yeah. My old school was very boring. I just skipped most of the time because of it.”

Lexa begins shuffling her feet and twiddling her thumbs.

Kane picks up on her odd behavior and hesitates slightly before asking “Is everything alright Lexa? Do you need anything?”

“Um… no, I’m fine. I was just uh… wondering if you were planning on staying after, if I could stay in here and work on some of my homework for a little while..?

Lexa’s teachers at her old school always fled the building as soon as the final bell rang. They wouldn’t be caught dead in their room after school when students would come looking for extra help. So Lexa prepares herself for the harsh backlash she was sure to get, for asking Kane to waste his precious time for someone like _her._

But Kane just smiles and gestures at a desk.

“Of course you can. I never turn down any of my students. And I always stay after school for a couple hours to catch up on my grading, so you’re always welcome.”

Lexa’s shoulders fall in relief.

“Thank you so much Professor, because I honestly have no clue where the library is.”

Kane barks out a laugh at this, and Lexa finds herself chuckling along with him. She settles into a desk at the front and is just about to begin working when Kane interrupts her.

“Oh Lexa, I have something for you! I was going to give it to you tomorrow in class, but since you’re here now I can give it to you.”

He enthusiastically hops up from his desk and begins rifling through a rusty filing cabinet. Eventually Kane pulls out a folded piece of paper and hands it to Lexa.

“What is it?” Lexa asks, dumbfounded.

“Open it and see.”

So she does just that. It is folded more times than she had originally assumed, and takes a full minute for her to open it. When she spreads it out across her desk, she is face to face with a detailed map of every room and hall in the school. It’s color-coded and easy to read, and it instantly makes her feel grounded to the school, like she’s not drowning anymore in a sea of students or unknown rooms and corridors.

Lexa has never been treated this kindly before by a person who just met her today, and a plethora of gratitude builds up inside her.

“Professor Kane … thank you. I don’t even know how to explain how thankful I am for this.”

Kane just brushes off her thanks and smiles at Lexa.

“You’re welcome. In my opinion, the front office should hand those out to all the new students, but….” he trails off.

Lexa nods frantically to let him know that she agrees wholeheartedly. Kane laughs again before making his way back over to his desk.

“Well I won’t distract you anymore, because I’m sure you have a ton of work to do.”

He starts grading papers again, and Lexa gets to work.

\-----

Almost two hours later Lexa is leaving Professor Kane’s room with a sore hand and a headache. She’s never had so much homework before, and her brain is swimming with facts, formulas, and the most bizarre information.

Her motorcycle is one of the only vehicles left in the parking lot. Finally leaving the school after such a long day brings her mixed feelings. Will she be excited to return tomorrow? Or will she dread it? Right now, Lexa’s too tired to think about it.

She’s never felt more at ease than when she arrives back to Walden. It’s by far the worst section of the Ark to grow up on, but for right now it’s all she knows, and that makes it home.

The house is completely dark when she steps inside and Lexa immediately knows Anya isn’t home. The Alpha is disappointed, though she doesn’t blame her sister for being absent. Anya takes as many shifts as she can, whatever the time, and Lexa is so proud of her sister for single-handedly paying the bills.

But her working so much means Lexa doesn’t get to see her often, and Lexa was really looking forward to talking to Anya, and maybe telling her about Clarke. Her older sister always knows what to say to make Lexa feels better.

She wants to wait up for Anya, but exhaustion wins out, and Lexa falls asleep thinking about a certain pair of kaleidoscope blue eyes.


	3. Dodgeballs and Job Calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa meets Murphy and Octavia and she saves Clarke a bunch of times from being hit in the face with a dodgeball.

The next morning, Lexa is already awake and cooking breakfast when Anya makes her way into the kitchen.

“You’re up early” Anya says sleepily through a yawn.

“Yeah.”

“So I take it you had a good first day yesterday?”

Lexa shrugs her shoulders. “It was alright.”

Anya gives her a worried look. “I’m sorry I had to go into work. I wanted to be here when you got home.”

Lexa just brushes her off. “It’s fine, really.”

Anya can tell something is bothering Lexa, but decides not to push her. Lexa always opens up to her eventually. They eat in comfortable silence before Lexa stands up to start getting her stuff together.

Anya shoots Lexa an apologetic glance. “You’re going to have to ride your bike to school today, because I need the motorcycle.”

Lexa sighs. “I figured. That’s the reason I got up so early.”

Anya can hear the disappointment and frustration in Lexa’s voice but doesn’t try to verbally apologize. Anya knows Lexa better than she knows herself, and an apology would only irritate her baby sister more.

Lexa disappears into her room for a minute and comes out with her backpack and lock, to secure her bike to one of the bike racks at school.

Lexa is so immersed in her own troublesome thoughts that she doesn’t comprehend the utter look of _exhaustion_ on her sister’s face. Anya’s eyes have dark bags under them from stress and lack of sleep, and her smile isn’t warm or genuine. Lexa mumbles out a goodbye and Anya squeezes her arm in silent support.

The older Alpha heaves out a heavy sigh after Lexa leaves and stares in a trance at all the overdue bills piling up on the kitchen counter. After a long while she finally turns away to go get ready for another long shift.

\-----

Lexa is surprised to find that the only thing she feels while pedaling to school is indifference. Yesterday was a numbing experience for Lexa, and her both her mind and body have not yet recovered from it.

When she enters Arcadia, the wonder and awe she felt when she had her first glimpse of the glowing district do not resurface. Everything around her seems dull and uninteresting, even though yesterday she was quite entertained with the unique sights and flashing advertisements that surrounded her.

Same goes with the high school. As she walks her bike through the parking lot, Lexa doesn’t even glance at the immaculate building looming over her. Her worn out shoes are more interesting to her today.

Lexa had just finished securing her bike when she feels something heavy hit the back of her head. She turns around to see three Alpha males walking towards her, all wearing confident smirks and leather varsity jackets. She shoots the tallest one a glare when she sees him pick up a football that was laying a few feet away from her- it was definitely what had hit her.

Lexa feels the explosive anger she tries so hard to subdue bubble up in her chest, so the brunette takes a moment to close her eyes and calm herself down. She doesn’t want to get in a fight on only her second day.

By the time they reach her, she has her breathing under control and her snarling has died down to low growls. But this changes the second the middle Alpha opens his mouth.

“I’m sorry I hit you, I guess my aim was a little off.”

His pathetic attempt at an apology makes it hard for Lexa to resist rolling her eyes. Before she comes back with a snarky reply, Lexa takes a minute to study him. He’s surprisingly almost as tall as Lexa, probably hovering around 6’0 or 6’1. His face is… weird. Lexa doesn’t know how else to describe it. His eyes sit too far away from his nose, making his facial structure oddly wide and ovular.

The pheromones he’s pumping out are strong, making Lexa feel slightly threatened. She puffs out her chest and straightens her back so she stands a bit taller.

Lexa gives the Alpha a calculating gaze. “Then where were you aiming?”

His eyes widen, completely taken aback by the question. “I’m sorry?” 

“Where were you aiming? There was no one around except for me. Surely you weren’t just throwing the football without an intended target” she replies briskly. 

The Alpha ends up stuttering enough for Lexa to be satisfied with her quick thinking.

“Um no, of course not. We were um…. having a contest to see who could uh….. throw the football the farthest. I didn’t see you before I threw the ball.” The Alpha looks pretty proud of himself for coming up with the excuse, and again, Lexa barely holds back an eye roll.

The Alpha dramatically makes a show of slicking his greasy hair back before continuing. “Anyways, since I don’t think we’ve met before, I’m Murphy, and these two pricks behind me are Finn and Quint.”

Both Finn and Quint subtly nod at her when they’re mentioned, but their faces maintain the look of complete boredom.

Lexa really isn’t in the mood to stick around and introduce herself, but she ends up doing exactly that. “I’m Lexa Woods” leaves her mouth before she can stop it.

“Lexa Woods huh? And where are you from miss Lexa Woods?”

Lexa clamps her fists together and grits her teeth, because she knows exactly where these Alphas are going with this.

“It doesn’t matter where I’m from.” Lexa says with a strained voice.

Murphy gives her a cocky grin. “I think it does. Come on, just tell us what part of Arcadia you’re from.”

Lexa takes a deep breath to center herself. Better to just rip off the band aid rather than avoiding it.

“I’m not from Arcadia. I-’m from Walden.”

Murphy smirks and nudges Finn and Quint, who are trying but failing miserably to conceal their laughter.

"Walden, huh? What’s it like there? Do you eat out of a trashcan?"

By now Lexa’s whole frame is shaking with rage, and she has to clench her jaw in order to keep from letting out a roar of outrage. The question doesn’t make her angry; she can handle a little teasing. It’s Murphy’s implication that she is lesser than him just because she comes from a poorer area.

“No, I don’t” she throws back sharply.

Murphy throws his hands up defensively. “Okay, okay, that’s cool. I was just asking. Listen, if you ever need anything, just let us know. We got your back Woods.”

His words are dripping with sarcasm, and his friends are full out howling with laughter behind him, not even trying to suppress it anymore. Lexa feels her face heat up and she pushes past them without replying, listening to their laughter fade as she walks toward the school.

\-----

Lexa storms through the front entrance and sets a quick pace to her homeroom, which she missed yesterday while talking to the office lady. It is only when she sees a group Omegas shy away from her and a Beta give her a strange look that she realizes the amount of aggressive pheromones she’s subconsciously producing.

She tries to calm down, but one thought of Murphy has her scowling all over again. Not only had he insulted where and how she was raised, he humiliated her by making it painfully obvious that she has yet to make any friends.

Her feelings of insecurity and self-loathing hit her hard then. _Maybe it would have just been better if I had stayed going to school in Walden. What if I don’t belong here?_

 _No._ She hastily pushes all these thoughts aside. _I worked hard to get here, and I’m going to prove that I belong._

Feeling re-motivated, she lengthens her strides and lifts her head. According to her schedule, her homeroom is room 103. Arcadia High School is made up of two floors, the first floor being the 100s and the top floor being the 200s. (This was something she learned from the map Kane gave her.)

When she gets to room 103, Lexa is standing outside of her art history classroom. Mrs. Green is sitting at her desk when Lexa enters the room, and the Alpha slides into the same seat she sat in yesterday.

Sitting there immediately makes her think of Clarke, since she was seated right in front of Lexa in class yesterday. In front of her now is a female Beta with short black hair, and Lexa wishes it was Wednesday instead of Tuesday so she could sit behind Clarke again and listen to her answer questions about a subject the brunette cares nothing about.

Soon Lexa, who is ADHD to the max, gets bored and decides to go talk to Raven when she spots her in the corner of the classroom. The Omega is playing on her phone, but looks just as bored as Lexa feels.

Lexa takes the vacant seat next to Raven, and loudly drops her backpack on the floor to try to get her attention, but her face remains glued to her phone. She tries coughing a few times, but Raven still doesn’t look up. Finally, Lexa loses her patience and waves her hand in front of Raven’s face to get her attention.

Raven yelps in surprise and drops her phone, but Lexa’s reflexes are lightning fast and she catches it before it hits the ground.

Handing the phone back to the startled girl, Lexa starts the conversation with a simple “Hey.”

“Hi. Um, thanks for catching my phone.”

Lexa is delighted to see that Raven doesn’t look scared like she did yesterday. In fact, she looks almost perfectly at ease talking to Lexa.

“You’re welcome. I’m the reason you dropped it in the first place, so it’d be rude not to catch it for you.”

Raven chuckles. “Yeah I guess so.”

That pretty much exhausts all other conversation topics between the two girls. Raven goes back to playing on her phone, but Lexa doesn’t mind. She was just happy she had somewhat bonded with someone.

Lexa is pulling out some of her unfinished homework from yesterday to work on when she hears someone loudly clear their throat in front of her. She looks up to find a pretty brunette standing right in front of her with a frown on her face. Omega pheromones fill her nose, and Lexa blushes slightly when she realizes this is the closest she’s been to an Omega in a while, other than her accidental collision with Clarke.

“You’re in my seat.”

Lexa blinks at the unknown Omega in front of her, surprised at the bluntness of her words. Usually Omegas speak timidly around her, and the command in this girl’s voice is rare to hear from an Omega. She notices Raven looking at the brunette in disbelief before turning to Lexa.

“Lexa meet Octavia, but most people just call her O.”

Lexa smiles and offers out her hand. “Hi Octavia, nice to meet you.”

Octavia looks down at the Alpha’s outstretched hand with distaste.

“Nice to meet you too,” Octavia says in a flat tone ,“Now can you please get out of my seat?”

Lexa’s eyes widen. “Oh right, sorry.”

She fumbles to gather her things and just before she stands up, the bell rings. Octavia rolls her eyes and grabs her backpack.

Lexa hears Octavia mutter “Off to hell” under her breath before she leaves the classroom. She is certainly a character. Lexa turns to look back at Raven, who gives her an apologetic look.

“Sorry about her. She can be a handful at first, but she’s great once you get to know her.”

Lexa nods in agreement. “Yeah she seems pretty feisty, but that’s not always a bad thing.”

“Not always a bad thing,” Raven echoes ,“Well I have go to class; we don’t have Bio-engineering today so I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Lexa hears the uncertainty in Raven’s statement, so she quickly nods her head in confirmation.

“Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

\-----

Lexa’s first three classes go by much smoother than yesterday. She knows her way around the school better and is genuinely more interested in the subjects of her classes today compared to yesterday. She is currently on her way to lunch, battling a pounding headache and nursing a sore hand from all the chemical equations she’d had to balance. She’s always liked chemistry, but has never had to endure more than forty-five minutes at a time.

She makes it to the cafeteria with no problem, but doesn’t bother ogling at it like she did yesterday. Lexa quickly takes out her lunch and peeks inside, groaning when she sees only a water bottle and a couple of fruits. Lexa is _famished_ , and she knows she won’t survive gym class next bell without more food. The line to buy lunch is very long, and it takes her over ten minutes to get to the buffet.

She cringes when she sees how expensive the food is, and regretfully gets a piece of pizza the price tag says costs four dollars. Sometimes Anya picks up a large pizza for dinner on special occasions, and it only costs five dollars and comes with eight slices of pizza. Her hand shakes as she hands the lady at the register a five dollar bill, and sighs when she receives her one dollar change.

Lexa is walking back over to her table when she hears a laugh that stops her in her tracks. _No, it can’t be._ She turns around. _Oh, but it is._

Clarke, Raven, and Octavia are sitting at a large table a few feet away from where Lexa is standing and are surrounded by Alphas and Betas. Clarke is laughing hysterically with Raven and Lexa stares longingly at her for a moment before she forces herself to tear her gaze away and continue walking to her seat.

All throughout lunch Lexa tries to focus on her homework, but she can’t help but peek over to look at Clarke every couple of minutes. Raven and Octavia are sitting in front of Clarke, and she is sandwiched between Wells and another Alpha Lexa had never seen before.

Every time Clarke playfully touches the Alphas Lexa clenches her hands so hard her knuckles turn white. When the bell rings, Lexa’s up and out of her seat in record time, wanting to get away from the blonde before her body snaps in half from tension.

She is the first to arrive to the gym, and quickly goes into the locker room to change. She doesn’t need to change her shirt, since she’s already wearing a t-shirt, and slips on some basketball shorts. Some Alpha males are already sitting on the gym floor waiting for class to begin, so Lexa sits on the floor a good distance away from them and watches as the rest of the class trickles in.

Lexa’s mood plummets when she sees Murphy and Finn come out of the boy’s locker room, but quickly rises again when she sees Clarke and Raven enter the gym. She watches Raven part from Clarke to go sit in the bleachers, while Clarke heads into the locker room to change.

Lexa sees the moment Murphy notices her, and she scowls when he begins walking over to where she’s sitting. Lexa looks away and tries to ignore him, but gives up when she sees him approaching out of the corner of her eye.

Lexa initiates the conversation, surprising both herself and the Alpha. “What do you want Murphy.”

Murphy chuckles. “What? Am I not good enough for formalities? A ‘Hey Murphy how are you?’ would be nice.”

Lexa’s really not in the mood for his banter. “I only give what people give to me.”

Murphy smiles that cocky smile that makes Lexa’s stomach flip, and not in a good way. He studies her long and hard for a moment before finally speaking again.

“Why are you here?”

Lexa looks up at him, confused. “This is my gym class. It’s on my schedule”

Murphy just chuckles. “No, I mean here at this school dumbass. Surely a girl like you from Walden couldn’t have gotten into this school from your grades.”

Lexa is on her feet in an instant, muscles tensed, hands clenched at her sides so hard her fingernails dig painfully into her skin.

“You don’t know anything about me” Lexa hisses with venom, making Murphy noticeably flinch.

She grins triumphantly until she hears someone clearing their throat behind them. Her eyes nearly pop out of her head when she sees the famous Coach Indra Forrester strolling towards them. Indra is the coach of Arcadia’s varsity girls’ basketball team, and ever since Lexa was a small pup she had dreamed of playing for her one day. Lexa loves basketball, and she even gave up playing soccer at her old school to start playing basketball all year-round.

Indra stops a few feet from Lexa and Murphy. She looks very unimpressed and Lexa gulps, feeling the need to look down at the floor under Indra’s scrutinizing gaze.

“Is there a problem here?”

Before Lexa can speak, Murphy coolly replies “Not at all Coach Indra. I was just telling Lexa how this is probably the best class here at Arcadia Academy.”

Indra stares for a moment with one eyebrow raised in disbelief before simply saying “Well, please have a seat on the floor with your classmates so we can get started.”

Murphy nods and obediently goes back over to his group of cronies. Meanwhile, Lexa is silently fuming. Murphy had just ruined her chance to make a good first impression on her biggest inspiration to play basketball. She glares at him, and he just smirks back from where he’s sitting with Finn and some other Alphas.

“Today you all will participate in a game of dodgeball. You may pick your teams; however, the teams must be evenly distributed. I will be in my office. If anyone gets injured please let me know before you go down to the nurse.”

Before she leaves Indra puts six dodgeballs on the court, three on each side. As soon as she’s out of sight, everyone immediately jumps up and begins sorting teams. Lexa notices all the Alphas gathered on one side of the court, but before she can join them, Murphy steps in front of her.

“Sorry, can’t play on our team today. You’ll have to play on the loser team. Good luck.”

Lexa desperately wants to wipe the arrogant smirk off his face, but she knows that by doing that she would be giving him exactly what he wants: control. He wants her to lose control, and she is determined not to give Murphy that power. She forces herself to stiffly turn away from him.

As she walks away, Murphy shouts from the other side of the court “I hope you’re ready to have your ass handed to you.”

Lexa doesn’t reply. Her lips pull upward into a small smirk, unfazed by his threats. Lexa had played dodgeball many times at her old school, and she knew she was good at it. Most of her team is made up of Betas and Omegas, including Clarke. A Beta with a whistle quickly lines up in the middle of the court to start the game. As soon as the whistle pierces the air, the students rush towards the center where the dodgeballs sit, and the brutal game begins.

\-----

Ten minutes in, and Lexa is already exhausted. Murphy makes it his priority to only target her, and soon all the other Alphas follow his lead, constantly hurling dodgeballs at her. She manages to dodge most of them and snag a few of them, but every time she manages to catch one the wind is knocked out of her.

The Alphas throw hard, and they aren’t afraid to aim for the head or the feet, both places that could seriously injure someone if they’re hit too hard. She finally gets a moment of peace when all six dodgeballs end up on her side.

There are only a couple of Betas on her side that have actually been participating. The rest of the Betas and Omegas are all in groups as far away from the action as possible trying to avoid being hit by a stray dodgeball.

Lexa spots Clarke huddled with a group of Betas, and she can’t help to notice how the short spandex she’s wearing shows off her pale and luscious legs to everyone in the gym. The thought makes Lexa want to run over and block everyone’s view of Clarke, cutting off the ability for people like Murphy to witness something so beautiful and pure. But she knows she can’t do that, because it’s not her place.

Lexa turns back to try to focus on the game and she realizes in her momentary distraction that one of the dodgeballs had rolled across the middle of the court to the Alpha’s side.

Murphy scoops it up and Lexa silently curses under her breath. Out of everyone on his team, his throws are definitely the most powerful, but Lexa has still managed to dodge everything he’s thrown at her thus far.

Murphy knows this, and although he isn’t the brightest Alpha, he’s smart enough to realize he won’t be able to hit her. He glances behind Alpha and spots the blonde Lexa was not-so-discretely staring at moments ago and smiles wickedly. He quickly winds up his arm before doing a complete 360 spin, and releases the dodgeball with enough force to make all of his previous throws go to shame.

Lexa knew as soon as she saw him look behind her what he’s planning to do. As soon as the ball leaves his hand, her blood runs cold in her veins. It’s headed straight towards Clarke, her enthralling Omega crush who is completely unprepared for the reception of the fastball. Lexa doesn’t think, when she starts running, because protecting Clarke from impact is all she knows in that short amount of time.

She makes it just in time, leaping in front of the dodgeball a few feet before it would have collided with Clarke. It slams into her stomach, and Lexa grunts as the sheer force of it pushes her back until she’s lying like a sack of potatoes at Clarke’s feet. Clarke gasps in disbelief and quickly moves backwards, almost stumbling over her own feet.

Lexa tries to move and groans, before realizing the dodgeball is still tightly secured in her arms, resting against her stomach. She had actually caught it! Lexa lets the ball roll to the side and ignores the pain as she tries to stand. A pale hand is suddenly in front of her, reaching out to help her. Lexa looks up slack-jawed at Clarke, who is staring earnestly down at her and Lexa thinks she might pass out with how fast her heart is beating.

Lexa gently takes the Omega’s hand and marvels at how soft and small it feels in her own. She lets go as soon as she stands up, even though she immediately misses the contact. Lexa doesn’t want to make Clarke feel uncomfortable in any way, so she avoids eye contact with her and turns around to face Murphy. His mouth is hanging open in shock, firmly rooted to the same spot where he was standing before he throwing the ball.

“You’re out Murphy” Lexa says confidently, not missing his flinch.

“Wh-hat?”

“You’re out; I caught the ball” Lexa replies smugly.

Murphy stands there dumbfounded until he realizes he IS out. He’s angry now, because he’s never gotten out before. Murphy huffs as he turns and begins to walk dejectedly to the sidelines.

Lexa turns around to retrieve the ball and sees Clarke staring longingly at it from where she’s standing. Suddenly, Lexa has an idea. She quickly picks it up and approaches Clarke.

Clarke’s eyes widen when she realizes Lexa is walking towards her but doesn’t shy away. When Lexa reaches her she silently hands Clarke the ball and nods her head towards Finn, whose back is still turned.

Clarke looks confused until she gets the implication and shakes her head, looking absolutely terrified. Lexa gently says “Clarke, he could have knocked you out. You deserve a little revenge.”

“But he didn’t. It hit you, so why don’t you throw it?”

Lexa chuckles. “I’ll get my revenge another day. Right now I think you deserve to throw it.”

Clarke tries to protest. “But he’s already out”

Lexa shrugs. “I don’t think anyone cares anymore.”

Clarke looks back to Murphy and sighs. “I can’t.”

Lexa doesn’t miss a beat. “You can” she says firmly, and Clarke looks up at her searching for truth in her eyes. When Lexa doesn’t waver, Clarke takes a deep breath to prepare herself. She moves around Lexa and walks towards the middle of the court.

Lexa turns around to watch, and quickly becomes mesmerized by Clarke’s elegant stride. When she reaches the center Clarke quickly mimics Murphy before the ball is loose and flying through the air. The throw isn’t anywhere near as strong or powerful as any of the Alpha’s throws, but it finds it’s mark. Lexa watches in awe as the ball hits Murphy square in his shoulder and can’t help but let out a loud laugh.

Her laughing ceases when Murphy turns around and angrily begins stalking towards Clarke. Before Lexa even realizes she moved, she is in front of Clarke, her hands shielding her behind Lexa's back, and she’s snarling fiercely at Murphy who despite her warning, is still rapidly approaching.

Just when Lexa is about to throw a punch, the bell rings, and class is over. Murphy suddenly stops, and even though he is still shaking with anger, he takes a few deep breaths and suddenly turns and storms out of the gym.

Lexa relaxes her posture slightly, and turns around to look at Clarke. Clarke is looking at her with so much gratitude that Lexa immediately feels unworthy, because it’s all she’s ever known how to feel.

Clarke quietly says “Thank you” before suddenly rushing past her, seeming eager to get as far away from her as possible. Lexa wants to call out to her, ask Clarke if they could talk, but she is too shy and knows Clarke probably has no interest in her anyway.

Lexa watches Clarke meet up with Raven on the bleachers and help her down, and they start walking towards the girl’s locker room. Out of the corner of her eye she sees Murphy lingering behind them, armed with a dodgeball. A new wave of anger surges through her as she sprints towards Murphy and the girls.

\-----

Lexa jumps in front of him just as he's about to throw the ball.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Murphy grits his teeth, getting frustrated and annoyed. “Step aside Woods.”

Lexa just crosses her arms and stands her ground, not afraid of the Alpha standing in front of her.

That’s when Murphy finally snaps, all of his patience spent, and he throws the dodgeball at the retreating figures of Clarke and Raven as hard as he can. Lexa knows the dangers of getting hit from behind, it could easily cause a concussion or break your back, so Lexa blindly jumps in front of the flying dodgeball.

It collides with her head on, and again she is thrown backwards from the impact. Her head throbs, and she’s sure the entire right side of her face will have an imprint of the dodgeball etched into her skin. Her nose is bleeding, but thankfully it doesn’t feel like it’s broken.

Lexa thinks Murphy is going to seriously hurt her when he starts walking quickly towards her, but he doesn’t even acknowledge Lexa as he picks up the dodgeball and exits the gym. Lexa looks towards the girl’s locker room and to see that Clarke and Raven had already gone inside and had no idea what had just taken place.

\-----

As people begin to exit the locker room, Lexa pulls herself behind the bleachers so they wouldn't see the messy state she’s in. She waits until she’s sure everyone’s gone before heading into the bathroom. She takes a deep breath and prays that her face doesn’t look as bad as it feels, but is extremely disappointed as soon as she steps in front of the mirror. Her right eye is puffy and swollen, with dark bruises already beginning to form around it. She knows in a few hours she will have a nasty black-eye. Her nose isn’t bleeding anymore, but all of her blood is dried up and crusted around, it, making her favorite t-shirt a casualty to stop the blood flow. Lexa sighs and tries to clean up as best she can.

She visibly shivers when she thinks about what Anya’s reaction will be. Will she be mad? Upset? Furious? Lexa doesn’t want to find out, so she stays at school for a while before finally heading home.

When she enters her house, Lexa is grateful that all the lights are off. She finds Anya asleep on the couch in the den. Only the lamp on the side table is on, and Lexa is about to turn it off when she hears Anya sit up.

Lexa tightens her hood around her face and stands so that her left side is facing Anya. When Anya faces her, Lexa knows immediately something is wrong. Her sister’s smile doesn’t reach her eyes, and she looks incredibly run-down.

“How was school today?” Anya prods gently.

Lexa knows Anya just wants to talk and see how she’s doing, but the sooner she can get away from Anya, the less risk there is of her seeing Lexa’s face.

“It’s fine” Lexa mumbles, trying to act tired and disinterested.

“Do you like your teachers so far? Have you made any friends?”

Lexa crumbles. Her sister is genuinely trying to find out how she’s doing at her new school, and Lexa doesn’t have it in her to push Anya away.

“Yeah the teachers are good. I’ve met some interesting people.”

Lexa immediately sees her sister’s eyes light up at her confession. “That’s so great Lex! I’m proud of you.”

Lexa gives her a soft smile. “Thanks An. So how was work?”

Anya deflates at the question and lets out a long, shaky sigh. “I didn’t go to work today.”

“But I thought you had a shift?” Lexa asks, confused.

“I did but…Lexa sit down.”

Lexa sits, making sure the right side of her face was away from Anya.

Anya takes a deep breath and looks at Lexa guiltily. “Lexa, I was let go today.”

Lexa lets that sink in for a minute. Anya was let go. Her sister doesn’t have a job, and neither does she. They’re not going to be able to buy food, or pay the bills, or pay rent. Anya can see Lexa panicking and quickly puts a hand on her arm.

Lexa jumps at the contact, and is shaken out of her trance when she realizes her sister is crying. Her strong, steady sister, who hasn’t cried since their mom’s funeral, is crying.

Lexa quickly pulls Anya into a tight embrace, and holds her sister while sobs wrack her body. She furiously pumps out soothing pheromones, and when Anya calms down a bit, Lexa whispers in her sister’s ear “Let me get a job, please. I want to help. Please let me help you.”

"Lex we've talked about this. I don't want you working while you're in school, especially with basketball season coming up" Anya says into Lexa's neck.

"Anya please, it's fine. I'll work around it, but I really want to help you. You've been working since you were my age, so I should be able to work."

Lexa feels more tears hit her neck. "Anya please, I'm begging you, we can do this together, let me help you" Lexa says in her most pleading tone.

"Okay."

"Did you say okay?" Asks Lexa excitedly.

"Yes, I said okay. You're right, you're old enough to work and I do need the help."

Lexa knows this is not easy for her independent sister to admit, so she hugs her tighter for a minute before pulling back and smiling at her. Lexa realizes her mistake as soon as she hears Anya's gasp. Shit.

"Lexa what happened to your face!?"

"It was nothing Anya really, don't worry about it."

"Lexa." Lexa turns to her sister at the soft tone Anya uses and sighs when she sees her worried face. "Please tell me what happened."

So Lexa told her. Everything that had happened in the past two days Lexa spilled to her sister, and once she finished she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

"That Murphy kid sounds like a real dick."

Lexa can't help but laugh and pull her sister in for another hug. She pulls back after a minute with a somber look on her face.

"Clarke is going to think I'm a monster when she sees my face tomorrow" Lexa says quietly.

"No she won't, not if you tell her the truth."

"You really think she'd believe me?"

"It doesn't matter if she believes you, all that matters is that it really happened and that you are telling the truth."

Lexa wants to believe her sister, but she is scared what Clarke's reaction will be when she sees her face tomorrow.

"Come on, let’s go to bed. It sounds like we've both had a long day."

Lexa ends up sleeping in Anya's bed, not wanting to be separated from her sister for the night.


	4. Parties, Parents, and Unexpected Heats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa goes to a party, Lexa, Octavia and Raven are bffs, she meets Bellamy, and she saves Clarke (again).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update, but I made it a longer chapter so I hope you guys enjoy it.

Lexa’s feet thundered against the pavement, echoing across the quiet neighborhood. Hood up and face down, Lexa counted her steps and pushed herself harder and harder until she had to slow down to a jog in order to catch her breath. It was very early in the morning, and most of Walden was still asleep, enabling Lexa to peacefully reflect on the past few days.

It has been almost a week since she jumped in front of Murphy’s flying fastball, and her face is still a puffy and swollen mess. It was definitely healing, if not slowly, and Lexa wished she could speed up the process so everyone at school would stop staring at her.

The only people who weren’t fazed at all by Lexa’s damaged face were Raven and Octavia. Lexa remembers Octavia’s exact words as “I’ve had worse” and Lexa couldn’t even ask what she meant before the two Omegas were already onto another topic.

Lexa had sat with Octavia and Raven in homeroom for the rest of the week. They helped each other with unfinished homework assignments until the bell rang for them to go to their first class. Although they did most of the talking, Lexa liked their company, and she had laughed and smiled with them more than she had with anyone in a while.

Her injured face had also put a hold on Lexa finding a job, since she doubted anyone would even consider hiring her while she was sporting a nasty black eye. Fortunately, Anya had gotten a job as a waitress a few days ago, so they at least had one income again.

Lexa picks up her pace to an all-out sprint when she sees her small house come into view. By now sweat was pouring down her face and stinging her eyes, but she didn’t push her hood down. Lexa hated the looks of pity she got when she did.

Anya’s motorcycle was still parked in the street, which meant her sister hadn’t left for her shift yet. Lexa hates it when Anya has to work long hours on the weekend; it makes her feel bad because she mostly spends the two days relaxing at home. When Lexa was younger, Anya used to bring her to the local basketball court on the weekends and they used to play one-on-one until they collapsed on the ground, both being too tired to stand. Lexa sighs and feels a strong sense of nostalgia at the memory, because she hasn’t played basketball with Anya in years.

When Lexa finally reaches her house, she slows to a walk and puts her hands on her head to try to even out her breathing. After a couple minutes, her heart rate finally slows down to a normal pace.

Entering her house, she hears the shower running in her sister’s bathroom and sighs because she’ll have to wait until Anya’s finished before she can take her own shower. Lexa grabs a water bottle and heads to her room to start on the ridiculous amount of homework her teachers had assigned for the weekend.

As she’s pulling one of her binders out of her backpack, an envelope with Lexa’s name printed sloppily on the front falls to the floor. She’s grateful because she would have totally forgotten about the invitation to a party Octavia gave her on Friday in homeroom.

The party is tonight, and Lexa curses because convincing Anya to let her go will be no easy task. She hears Anya walking down the hallway outside her room and makes a split second decision to talk to her about it.

“Hey Anya” Lexa called as she rushed out of her room.

“What’s up?” Lexa hears Anya call from further down the hall.

She finds Anya standing in the kitchen fixing a cup of coffee.

“When do you leave for work?” Lexa breathlessly asks, and the incredulous look her sister gives her almost makes her laugh.

“My shift starts in an hour. Why?”

“After I take a shower, can I talk to you about something?”

Anya raises her eyebrow in question, but quickly replies “Of course. You can always talk to me about anything.”

Lexa is turning around to leave when Anya asks “Is it bad? Did something else happen?”

She sees the concern in her sister’s eyes and gives her a small smile. “No, it’s nothing bad. I just want to ask you a question.”

Anya just nods, and again Lexa turned to go take a shower.

\-----

After her shower Lexa finds Anya in the living room already in her uniform, and she is thankful because it might take Lexa awhile to convince her sister to let her go to this party. Lexa can tell her sister is trying to look nonchalant, but anxious pheromones are spilling off of her in waves. It isn’t everyday Lexa initiates what seems like would be an important conversation.

She walks past her sister and plops down on the couch, and Anya follows and sits next to her. Lexa takes a deep breath and rushes out “AnyacanIgotoapartytonight?”

Anya just laughs and says “Talk slower you dork, I can’t understand you.”

Sighing, Lexa takes another breath and slowly asks “Anya can I go to a party tonight?"

Lexa notices how at the word ‘party’ Anya immediately stiffens, making it obvious that the question made her uneasy.

With a nervous expression Anya answers “I don’t know if that’s a good idea Lexa. You know what happened when you used to go to parties.”

Lexa’s shoulders sag, because she’s right. After their mom died when she was 8, Lexa didn’t care about anything anymore. She went against everything her mom ever taught her: doing drugs, getting drunk, hanging out with bad influences. It was how she had dealt with the pain, and how she had made the sadness disappear until she couldn’t feel anything at all.

She got better though. It took many heated arguments with Anya before she finally realized that she needed to get help. She saw a therapist and got past her addiction. It was a painful process, but it had been worth it when she was completely clean and sober by the end of middle school. Her grades had suffered tremendously, but she started her freshman year strong and maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her sophomore year.

“It’s not like that Anya” Lexa says honestly. “I won’t go off track again like I did in middle school. And it’s not even really a party, just a get together at Octavia’s house.”

Anya still looks unsure, so Lexa uses the guilt card on her.

“Anya you’re the one who wanted me to make friends, and I can’t do that if I never see anyone outside of school.”

She looks at Lexa for a moment, and finally caves when Lexa pouts her lips at her in a silent plead.

“Fine you can go. But no drugs and the only thing you’re allowed to drink is water, understand?”

“Yes ma’am” Lexa replies with a goofy salute.

“Lexa I’m serious.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I won’t do any of that stuff again Anya, I promise.”

Lexa’s earnest and innocent look makes Anya want to wrap her arms around the younger girl and protect her from all the cruel things in the world. Even though Lexa had an extremely rough and short-lived childhood, she still turned out to be just as kind and selfless as their mother had been.

“Do you need someone to pick you up from Octavia’s? My shift ends at 6.”

“Nah, I’ll just walk home. Her house is really close to the border.”

The border is the term for the division between Walden and Arcadia, the two main sections on the Ark. The people in Arcadia who live farthest away from the border are the wealthiest. The people in Walden who live farthest away from the border are the poorest. Since Octavia’s family lives close to the border in Arcadia, they probably aren’t much better off than Lexa and Anya, who also live close to the border in Walden.

“Okay. Don’t be home too late. Try not to stay past 12, alright?”

Nodding, Lexa responded with a simple “Okay” before she was pulled into a tight hug from Anya.

“Be safe Lex, I swear to god if anything happens to you again I-“

Lexa pulls back from Anya’s grasp before saying “I’ll be fine An, don’t worry about me. You should get going; you don’t want to be late for work.”

Anya’s eyes widen as she quickly glances down at her watch and realizes she’s running a few minutes late.

“Shit. Yeah I should get going.”

Lexa gets up and walks her sister to the door. Before Anya leaves, she turns around and jokingly points her finger at Lexa. “I mean it. No later than 12.”

“Alright Anya” Lexa responds while rolling her eyes.

When Anya gets to her motorcycle Lexa calls out to her “May we meet again.”

Anya smiles wide at her and yells dramatically “May we meet again” before driving off down the street.

\-----

Lexa tries to work on her homework. She really tries. Visions and conversations from the past week keep distracting her, especially one conversation in particular.

_Flashback_

_Wednesday afternoon Lexa was sitting in the art history classroom, waiting for class to begin. She had her hood up and was laying her head on her desk to cover up her bruised face, which had gotten more puffy and swollen overnight._

_Since she was almost falling asleep she didn’t notice Clarke coming in and sitting in the desk next to her until she gently nudged Lexa’s shoulder._

_Lexa was so startled she nearly fell out of her seat. Clarke laughed softly at her until she saw Lexa’s face. Her laughing turned into a silent gasp and Lexa hung her head in shame and wouldn’t meet Clarke’s eyes._

_“What happened?” Clarke asked her softly._

_Lexa slowly looked up at her and was not expecting to find a look of sincere concern on Clarke’s face. She twiddles her thumbs, a habit Lexa does when she’s nervous, and when she’s finally ready to answer she stops and folds her hands in her lap._

_“I got into a disagreement with someone. No big deal.”_

_“A disagreement… so a fight?”_

_Lexa glanced at her gorgeous blue eyes before forcing herself to look away, because she knew if she kept staring she would get lost in them and not be able to concentrate._

_“I wouldn’t really call it a fight. It was pretty much one-sided, I never hit him back.”_

_“You never hit him back?” Clarke asks incredulously._

_“No, I can’t get myself to hurt people. Even if they’re hurting me, I’d feel bad if I hurt them back.”_

_Clarke just stared at her for a long moment, lips curling up in a small smile. Lexa stared back, unsure why Clarke was looking at her like she was the most important person in the universe._

_“That’s probably the most un-Alpha like thing I’ve ever heard.”_

_The comment should have made Lexa angry, but nothing the blonde would ever say could make her mad. Lexa just shrugged her shoulders and gave Clarke a wry grin. Then the bell rang, and Clarke turned back to the front of the classroom to pay attention to Ms. Green._

_End Flashback_

Lexa recalls the memory with a dopey smile on her face, but it quickly turns into a grimace when she realized she hadn’t told Clarke the full truth. She technically hadn’t gotten into a fight. Murphy had just decided to bash the left side of her face in with a dodgeball. Does that count as a fight? Lexa didn’t think so.

The fights she had witnessed at her old school were mostly gang fights and consisted of at least 10 people, all wielding small knives or whatever sharp objects they could find. Anya had made sure that Lexa had never gotten involved in any gangs, even when she was off drinking and partying every night. So her run in with Murphy definitely couldn’t be classified as a ‘fight’.

All her over-analyzing was giving her a headache so she closed her textbook, accepting that she wasn’t going to get any more studying done. She picked up Octavia’s party invitation and read it for the hundredth time that day. The party started at 6, so Lexa still had a couple hours to kill before she had to get ready. She decides to grab a basketball and go shoot some hoops, since playing basketball always seems to clear her head.

\-----

When Lexa gets home, she realizes she has to take another shower because playing multiple pickup games of basketball made her sweaty as hell. After showering and applying multiple layers of makeup to cover her eye, Lexa dressed in black skinny jeans, a simple white tank top, and her favorite leather jacket. Upon seeing the state of her hair, she grabs a black snapback cap to fruitlessly try to tame her unruly brown locks. She gets a bottle of Anya’s wine before leaving because even though she won’t be drinking, it is polite to bring something when going to a party. Lexa isn’t anything if not well-mannered.

The walk to Octavia’s house is surprisingly short, but to Lexa it feels like hours because of how nervous she is. She really shouldn’t be nervous at all because she’s been to hundreds of parties, but none like this. Not with friends who might actually care about her and not just use her to get high and wasted.

When Lexa gets to Octavia’s house, she takes a minute to stand outside and observe her surroundings. A small chain fence stands between her and the short brick pathway leading up to the house. It’s two stories, and although it is bigger than Lexa’s home, it has the same quaint and humble feel that Lexa admires.

She is snapped out of her daydream by the extremely loud music she hears when the front door opens. Octavia pokes her head out and yells “Woods, what are you doing lolly gagging outside for, get your ass in here!” Before Lexa can reply, Octavia’s already gone and she’s left standing outside again in silence.

Much like her first day of school, the pheromones that hit her upon entering the Blake household are overwhelming. The house is already packed, making it definitely more than the ‘get together’ Lexa had told Anya it would be. The music is so loud that Lexa swears she can feel the house shaking, and the air is filled with the smell of sweat and alcohol.

Suddenly Octavia is in front of her and is pulling her towards what looks to be the kitchen. The music isn’t as loud in there, but Octavia still has to shout in order for Lexa to hear her.

“Damn Woods, you’re looking fine! Not as hot as me of course, but you still clean up pretty well.”

Again Lexa is taken aback by Octavia’s boldness, and she can’t help but blush from the compliment. She feels her lower region getting hot, and she silently scolds herself for being far too eager.

“Um than-” Lexa didn’t even get to finish her sentence because Octavia finally noticed the wine bottle Lexa was holding and effectively cuts her off.

“Holy shit Lexa is that desert wine!? You might just be my new favorite person right now.”

Octavia grabs the bottle from her and pours herself a cup. Lexa intervenes before she pours a second cup and asks for water instead. Octavia looks at her a little strangely but doesn’t comment as she grabs a water bottle from the fridge.

”Come on, I want you to meet the gang.”

Again Octavia drags her around the crowded downstairs until she’s back in the living room. She sees Clarke sitting on the couch and gets that excited, fluttery feeling in her chest whenever she sees the blonde. Then she sees who she’s sitting next to, and immediately becomes uneasy. It isn’t Wells, but the other Alpha Clarke was sitting next to during lunch the other day.

Raven is sitting on the other side of Clarke, and she flashes Lexa a peace sign when she notices her. Clarke looks up at her and smiles and Lexa almost forgets who she is. She remembers though when she sees the Alpha next to her shooting Lexa a smoldering glare. Lexa can tell by the way he’s positioned himself next to Clarke and slung his arm around her shoulders that he’s very protective and territorial of the girl. _“They’re probably together”_ Lexa thinks miserably.

What was she thinking, that someone as beautiful and captivating as Clarke wasn’t already claimed by another Alpha? How could she have possibly thought that she had a chance?

She was brought out of her self-degrading thoughts by Octavia, who had made it her personal mission to introduce Lexa to all of her friends. Lexa was extremely grateful of the gesture, because without her she probably would be awkwardly standing alone in a corner somewhere.

”Hey everyone listen up, this is Lexa, and she’s my new best friend because she brought me wine.”

“Well actually the wine was for everyone….” Lexa’s comment died in her throat when she saw the Omega give her a disapproving look. Octavia was a force to be reckoned with, and she honestly kind of scared Lexa a little.

“Hello Lexa, nice to meet you.”

Lexa turns and sees Wells get up from the chair he was sitting in and walk over with his hand extended. Lexa meets him halfway and gives him a brief handshake. His grip isn’t crushing and is surprisingly gentle, and he gains Lexa’s respect because he proved that he can control his need to challenge while meeting another Alpha.

Octavia introduces her to the rest of what she dubs ‘the gang’ who consist of Monty and Jasper who are Betas, Lincoln who’s an Alpha, Monroe who’s an Alpha, and Echo who’s an Omega. After she was introduced to everyone Raven made room for her to sit on the couch, and soon she became immersed in conversation.

\-----

Awhile later, the party was still going strong. Octavia now sat next to Lexa on the couch since Raven got up to go play beer pong. Octavia was very drunk and giggled profusely at everything Lexa said, even if it wasn’t funny at all. Out of the corner of her eye Lexa saw Clarke still sitting next to that same Alpha, and noticed he had shifted even closer to her, if that was even possible.

“Hey Octavia, who’s that Alpha sitting next to Clarke?”

“Call me O” Octavia muttered tiredly.

“What?”

“Call me O. Everyone else does. It’s a pain in the ass to say Octavia all the time. It took me three whole seconds just to say my name, ain’t nobody got time for that.”

“Um okay” Lexa responded lamely. She wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to say to that.

When Lexa was still looking expectantly at Octavia a moment later, Octavia says “I love you Lexa and I know I’m a sight to behold, but I don’t like you that way.”

Lexa chuckles and rolls her eyes. “I know that, but you never answered my question.”

“Repito por favor.”

“Who is the Alpha who’s sitting next to Clarke?”

Lexa sees her eyes dart over to where Clarke is sitting and her eyes light up when she spots the Alpha. “Oh that’s my brother Bellamy! I can’t believe I forgot to introduce him.”

“That’s okay, I was just curious. Him and Clarke seem pretty close.”

“Yeah, he’s always been really protective of me and Clarke. We’ve known her since we were pups.”

“So are they together?” Lexa prods. She normally isn’t nosy, but she has to know if Clarke and Bellamy are together before she can make a move.

Octavia snorts at the question. “Who Bellamy and Clarke? God no. They’re like siblings. That’d be weird if they were together.”

Lexa lets out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She looks dreamily at Clarke again for a few minutes until she sees Octavia looking back and forth between her and the blonde Omega out of the corner of her eye.

Octavia suddenly shrieks excitedly and starts hitting Lexa repeatedly on the shoulder.

“Ow geez, what do you want?”

“You like Clarke!” Octavia blurts out and starts giggling uncontrollably.

“What? No I don’t!” But Lexa denies it too quickly, and the dark blush on her cheeks isn’t helping her case.

“Shut up, you totally like her! You and Clarke would be so cute together. Oh my god and Clarke hasn’t liked anyone since….” Octavia falters and bashfully looks away.

“Since…what?”

Octavia won’t meet her eyes, and is looking at the floor like it’s the most interesting thing in the room. She suddenly jumps up and rushes out “We should go find Raven and see if we can get in a game of beer pong.”

“Octavia, wait!”

But she’s already gone. Lexa sighs and gets up to stretch her legs. She looks over at Clarke one last time before following Octavia to search for the beer pong.

\-----

Ten minutes later she finds Raven and Octavia in the basement standing in front of a very large beer pong table. Raven and Wells are on one side of the table going against Octavia and Lincoln on the other side.

As soon as Raven sees Lexa she shouts out “Oh yeah Woods you’re playing on my team next!”

“Sorry Raven, I don’t drink.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll throw, I’ll drink. I need a basketball player on my team, Wells here can’t aim to save his life.”

“Hey!” Wells protests.

“Fair enough. Wait how did you know I play basketball?”

Raven winks at her before saying “I have my ways”, leaving Lexa slightly concerned.

She watches the rest of the game on the sideline, and Raven and Wells end up winning. Octavia was too drunk to make the tiny ping pong ball even close the table, which ended with a considerably more drunk Octavia. Lincoln had to put his arm around her waist and practically carry her upstairs after the game finished.

“Alright Woods, you ready to dominate?”

“Yeah I’m ready. Who are we playing?”

“We’ll play” came a gruff voice behind Lexa.

Lexa turns around to see Bellamy and the Omega girl Echo walking towards the other end of the table. Bellamy stares coldly at Lexa before brushing past her and knocking her shoulder, making her let out a low warning growl. But she reminds herself that there’s no need for that because she can get him back by kicking his ass in beer pong.

Lexa is an expert at beer pong. She had excelled at it when she was black out drunk, so playing while she was sober would be no challenge at all. Before they started the game Lexa saw Clarke come into the basement and join some Betas on the sideline to watch. She knew she had to be good to beat Bellamy but now she had to be super good so she could also impress Clarke.

And impress Clarke she did, because Bellamy never stood a chance. Every time she threw the ping pong ball it landed in a cup of alcohol. Raven only had to drink a couple times in the beginning because Bellamy was still sober enough to throw straight. Now he was in the same state as Octavia, barely able to stand on his own, much less get the ping pong ball in one of the cups across the table.

Lexa finally threw the ball into the last cup, and Raven pumped her fists in victory. Bellamy and Echo left and two Betas took their place. Lexa lost track of time, and was so focused on playing the game she didn’t see Clarke leave.

Raven and Lexa were eventually banned to play anymore, because they were too good. By now Raven really was drunk, and Lexa followed her as she hobbled and swayed towards the stairs to go back up to the living room. Almost halfway up the stairs, Raven slows down and starts limping. Lexa watches as Raven holds onto her brace and curses, trying in vain to hop on one foot up the steep stairs.

Before Raven can protest, Lexa scoops her up bridal style and carries her up the rest of the steps like she weighs nothing.

“Damn, warn a girl first would you Woods?”

“Sorry” Lexa sheepishly replies.

“No it’s fine Woods. Don’t you know a girl loves being swept off her feet?”

“I have a first name, you know.”

“Yeah what was it again? Lori? Lucy?”

“You better stop there or I might just drop you.”

Raven gasps. “You wouldn’t dare!”

Lexa does drop her, but fortunately for Raven it’s onto a cushioned seat in the kitchen. Lexa goes to grab two water bottles from the fridge, and when she gets back Raven is untying the straps of her brace. When she pulls it off a loud sigh comes out of her as the brace clunks to the floor.

When Lexa takes a closer look she realizes it’s not a brace at all, but a prosthetic leg. Around her leg where Raven took the brace off is red and raw, making Lexa cringe at the sight of it. It looks infected, and very, very painful.

“Is there anything I can do?”

Raven just shook her head solemnly. “Unfortunately the only thing I can do is take the brace off and air it out for a while. Maybe take some medicine for the pain.”

If there was one thing Lexa hated, it was seeing people she cared about in pain and not being able to help.

“Alright well, you should probably just chill here for a bit. I’m going to go find a bathroom, okay?”

Raven just nods her head, already lost in her own thoughts.

\-----

Lexa finds the bathroom right down the hall from the kitchen. The door is locked and she’s pretty sure there’s more than one person in there so she doesn’t bother knocking. She decides to go upstairs to find a bathroom. As her mind wanders, she realizes she hasn’t seen Clarke in a while. The thought makes her paranoid, and she decides to try to find her after she relieves herself. Thankfully the bathroom upstairs is unoccupied, and she quickly does her business so she can get back to the party.

A light peeking out from under one of the bedroom doors stops Lexa from going back downstairs. She presses her ear up against the door, and curiosity gets the best of her when she doesn’t hear anything.

Lexa assumes the room is Octavia’s by the girly décor and pictures of her with friends lining the walls. No one appears to be in the room. Looking around more closely, Lexa spots the window in the corner opened, and sees a figure sitting on the roof.

Lexa stops when she sees that it’s Clarke. Her legs forget how to move, and an internal battle starts in her brain. _Should I go over there? Should I not? She probably wants to be alone but this could be the best chance I have to talk to her…_ Mind made up, Lexa easily hops over the window onto the roof and plops down next to Clarke. Clarke doesn’t even glance at her, and Lexa thinks she may have made a mistake when they don’t exchange any words after a few minutes.

Clarke breaks the silence first. “Where did you come from?”

Lexa points to the window and says “Bathroom.”

Clarke laughs a little and says “That’s not what I meant.”

Lexa furrows her brows in confusion and barely manages to get out “Then what did you mean?”

“I’ve gone to Ark Academy for two years. I know everyone in my grade, pretty much everyone in the whole school, then the first day of junior year boom: you show up out of nowhere.”

Lexa sighs and avoids the truth a bit longer before turning to face Clarke. “I don’t live in Arcadia, I’m from Walden.”

Clarke’s eyes flash with understanding. “Ah. So that’s why I’ve never seen you before.”

They go back to sitting in silence and Lexa glances subtly over at Clarke every couple of seconds to admire her. She’s wearing a blue tank top that compliments her eyes with short jean shorts that shows off her smooth, pale legs. It’s a fairly simple outfit, but it still manages to show off a lot of Clarke’s soft skin that makes Lexa have to push down her not-so-innocent desires.

“I’ve never been to Walden before. What’s it like?”

“You want me to tell you about Walden?” Lexa asked with her eyebrow raised.

“That’s what I asked wasn’t it?”

Her snappy comment makes Lexa think immediately of Octavia, and she is baffled that this is the same timid girl she ran into in the hallway a week ago. But Lexa doesn’t show how thrown off she is from the comment and answers Clarke’s question. She tells her about the gangs, the violence, and what it was like to grow up there. Clarke listens intently, and Lexa finds herself more than once forgetting her train of thought while looking at the blonde.

When Lexa finishes, Clarke takes a minute to soak in everything Lexa’d just told her before saying “I want to go one day.”

Lexa looks at her, intrigued, and asks “After everything I just told you, you would still want to go to Walden? It’s a terrible place. And it’s really dangerous.”

“I don’t care, I just want to see it for myself. I’m even more curious now that you’ve told me about it.”

“Trust me, Walden is not a place you want to put on your bucket list Clarke.”

Lexa leans back so she’s laying against the roof, and soon Clarke follows suit.

“Earth is on my bucket list” Clarke mutters softly, thinking she was quiet enough for Lexa not to hear, but Lexa does hear.

“Earth, huh?”

Clarke looks over to gauge Lexa’s reaction, and when she sees sincerity in Lexa’s eyes she continues.

“Yes. I want to see everything and go everywhere. I can’t imagine being stuck up in this hunk of metal my whole life.”

Lexa contemplates what Clarke is saying, and she agrees. She doesn’t want to stay in space her whole life, especially when there’s a chance her life could be better on the ground.

“I’ve never told anyone that before. It feels like a weight’s been lifted off my shoulders.”

Lexa rolls on her side to face Clarke. “You’ve never told anyone you’ve wanted to go to earth before?”

Clarke rolls on her side to face Lexa(who is now practically hyperventilating because they are so much closer than they were before) and says “No. I always felt like I would be judged. That people would think I was crazy wanting to go down to a radiation-filled planet.”

Lexa knows she shouldn’t ask, but can’t help herself. “So why’d you tell me?”

Clarke looks at her, much like how she looked at her that Wednesday afternoon in art history, and says “I just felt like you wouldn’t judge me. That you would understand.”

Lexa doesn’t miss a beat and softly says “Clarke, I would never judge you. And I do understand.”

The smile that Clarke gives Lexa might be the most spectacular thing she’s ever seen.

\-----

After that, conversation flows easily between the two. They talk about everything- ranging from school to basketball to art to embarrassing stories. Lexa had never felt so comfortable talking to someone before. At one point they had both moved back to laying on their backs, but Clarke moved closer so that their shoulders were touching, and Lexa nearly died.

When Clarke looks at her watch and says she has to go, Lexa whines out loud in frustration. Her eyes widen at the sound she let slip out, and turns to Clarke to find her cracking up.

“Stop! It’s not funny!”

Lexa pouts and Clarke laughs even louder.

“It’s hilarious. I think somebody’s going to miss me.”

“Yeah not anymore.”

“Rude” Clarke says as she shoves Lexa’s shoulder.

They both stand facing each other, Lexa looking down at Clarke with a smile on her lips.

“I had fun talking to you tonight.”

“Yeah me too. But I should really get going. Mom gets nervous when I’m not home by curfew.”

Lexa laughs awkwardly and steps aside. “Right, sorry. I’ll let you go.”

Clarke smiles at her and squeezes her arm before climbing through the window into Octavia’s room.

“I’ll see you on Monday!” Lexa hears Clarke call from inside the room.

“See you Monday Clarke!”

As soon as Lexa’s sure Clarke left she pumps her fist and does a happy dance. She’s so happy from her conversation with Clarke that it isn’t until she goes back downstairs that she remembers she has her own curfew and should probably be leaving too.

Lexa doesn’t bother saying goodbye to anyone because everyone’s so drunk they wouldn’t even remember, so she grabs another water bottle and leaves.

Lexa exits Octavia’s house in a better mood than she’s been in in a long time. She had successfully abstained from alcohol, hung out with friends, and had gotten to talk to her crush. There wasn’t anything that could ruin her good mood right now. Well, almost anything. When Lexa hears a scream coming from a few blocks away, her blood runs cold in her veins. She drops her water and sprints towards it. 

She is 100% certain that was Clarke that just screamed, and the thought of her being hurt or in danger makes Lexa run faster. She runs until she is at the entrance of a small alleyway, and she sees figures moving around at the end. She walks cautiously towards them, until Lexa sees a tuft of Clarke’s golden hair move out of the shadows, then she’s running again at full speed.

Lexa is enraged at what she finds. Two Alphas have cornered Clarke into the back of the alley, and are roughly touching her exposed skin. Lexa lets out a loud growl, causing Clarke and the Alphas to turn to her.

When she gets within a few feet of Clarke her body tenses, and she suddenly understands why these Alphas are attacking her. Before they can lay another hand on Clarke, she leaps in front of them and cuts them off from her. Lexa snarls ferociously and pumps out as many threatening pheromones as she can, which makes the Alphas submit and quickly scatter.

Lexa turns to Clarke and finds her sitting against the wall shivering violently.

“You’re in heat” Lexa exclaims.

Clarke doesn’t say anything, but looks up at Lexa with so much fear that Lexa’s heart breaks right then and there. Lexa slowly moves closer to her, and curses when she feels the familiar twitch of her center, signaling that her length is about to extend. The closer she gets, the more it grows, and by the time Lexa is in front of Clarke her pants are painfully tight.

Clarke looks up and sees the bulge in her pants and whimpers, so Lexa sits down so they are level and folds her hands in her lap.

“Clarke look at me.”

Clarke doesn’t look up, so Lexa tries again, softer this time. “Clarke please look at me.”

This time Clarke slowly looks up at Lexa with tears still streaming down her face. Lexa starts pumping out soothing pheromones and even purrs a little, trying to calm Clarke down enough to listen to her.

Eventually Clarke stops crying, but she’s still shivering so Lexa shrugs off her jacket and gently puts it over Clarke’s shoulders.

“Clarke I need you to listen to me. I won’t hurt you, I promise. I just want to help you. You’re safe now.”

Clarke nods and lets out a shaky “Okay”, and Lexa smiles reassuringly at her.

“I’m going to walk you home okay? I’ll need you to guide the way to your house, do you think you could do that for me?”

Again Clarke nods, and she pulls Lexa’s jacket tighter around her.

Lexa slowly stands. “I’m going to help you stand up now okay?”

She reaches down and gently pulls Clarke up by her shoulders. As soon as Clarke is standing, she molds her body against Lexa’s and presses against her, eager for a comforting embrace. Lexa bucks her hips at the contact and her eyes roll back into her head, because Clarke’s body feels _so_ good flush against hers.

 _Focus Lexa Focus!_ “Clarke we have to go. Other Alphas are going to smell your heat and I probably can’t hold more than 3 back at a time.”

Not giving her a chance to reply, Lexa puts her arm around Clarke’s shoulders and begins to walk. Their pace is extremely slow, but they manage to make it to Clarke’s house in less than a half an hour. Clarke gave her directions, and the more they walked, the more Lexa began to realize that Clarke was probably really rich. She was right. When Clarke stops them in front of a house and says “This is it”, Lexa’s jaw drops to the ground.

Clarke’s house is _huge_. They walk up to a large gated fence and Clarke types in a password and it opens with a loud creak. She pulls Lexa through and they walk up until they’re standing on the front porch. Lexa is about to turn and say goodbye to Clarke when the front door slams open and a man and women come running to them. Before Lexa can react, she is being forced away from Clarke and pushed down the porch steps.

A man, presumably Clarke’s father, is standing in front of her with his teeth bared, daring Lexa to challenge him. She looks up and sees Clarke’s mother shielding Clarke behind her, and Clarke is trying unsuccessfully to get around her mother’s tight embrace. Lexa sniffs the air for pheromones, and is shocked to smell Omega pheromones right in front of her. Clarke’s father is an Omega.

Lexa is impressed with his ability to stand strong against her powerful pheromones, until she sees how much the effort is straining his body. He holds on though, because protecting his daughter is always his first priority. Lexa wants to reassure him, explain that she wasn’t trying to hurt Clarke, but she knows her words won’t do any good. Actions speak louder than words. So Lexa acts. She does something that she has never done to anyone before, much less an Omega. 

She submits to him. She gets down on her knees, and shows her neck in a sign of respect. After a minute she looks up and finds Clarke’s father standing straight up with his mouth open in shock. Clarke and her mother have the same reaction. After a few more moments they all still look just as shocked, so Lexa slowly stands and points at the gate. “I’m going to leave now.”

She walks home thinking about how much trouble she’ll be in when Anya sees she's getting home way past her curfew.


	5. Family Dinners and Flashbacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke invites Lexa over to dinner at her house, Clarke and Abby get into an argument, Clarke vents to Lexa, and Lexa has a crippling flashback. Enjoy :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's chapter 4. Since this chapter has a shit ton of Clexa the next chapter will probably focus more on Lexa with Murphy, Finn, and Raven. The next few chapters will explain more of Lexa's and Raven's backstories and why Abby is so overprotective of Clarke.  
> (Just a warning, Lexa does have a flashback in this chapter and it does contain child abuse. It's at the very end of the chapter if you want to skip it.)

Clarke didn’t come to school for four days. Her absence felt heavy, and Lexa found herself having a hard time focusing without the blonde around. Clarke’s heat must be really strong for her to miss this much school, and Lexa can’t help but feel worried. Usually when Omegas are in heat they miss maybe one or two days of school until their heat dies down enough for the suppressants to completely mask it. A part of Lexa really wants to visit Clarke and make sure she’s okay, but the rational side of her knows her parents wouldn’t appreciate it. Clarke’s parents obviously get super protective when Clarke is in heat, so Lexa knew she wouldn’t be welcome in their home unless she was invited.

Lexa asked Raven and Octavia if they had heard from her, but they just shook their heads and said they haven’t seen her. By Thursday Lexa was almost desperate enough to ask Bellamy. Key word being almost. She didn’t want to show her desperation to anyone, especially to an Alpha who clearly dislikes her.

So Lexa’s week ends up being pretty uneventful. Murphy and Finn don’t bother her anymore in gym, which she is extremely grateful for. Her black eye is nearly healed, all the bruises having faded from a dark purple to a light yellow. She spends her days after school hunting for a job in Arcadia. A perk of going to Ark Academy is that she is allowed to work in Arcadia, which is considered a privilege to someone who lives in Walden. Lexa is enthusiastic about getting a job in Arcadia since the minimum wage is a lot higher than if she were to get employed somewhere in Walden.

Lexa runs at least two miles every morning to ensure she has the best chance of making the basketball team at school. Basketball has always come naturally to her, but Lexa knows Coach Indra is very hard to impress. Indra isn’t a fan of letting Alphas play on her team because they are impulsive and not smart when handling the basketball. Lexa is determined to prove her wrong.

On Friday morning however, instead of going for a run Lexa sits at the kitchen table studying her art history textbook. All her classes have come easily to her except this one, and it frustrates Lexa to no end. She’s barely hanging on to a B in the class, even though it should be her easiest subject. Without Clarke there, she doesn’t bother paying attention and is now forced to cram study during her normal running time.

She is out the door before Anya even wakes up, which usually never happens. Lexa really wants to get some extra studying time in at school before homeroom, so she rides her bike as fast as she can to Ark Academy. The doors aren’t even unlocked yet so she has to knock until a lady from the office opens the door for her. She races down the hall and finds Professor Kane’s door open, as she expected. She sticks her head in and finds him at his desk focused on grading papers.

“Morning Professor.”

Kane jumps up in his chair, causing his knees to thump up into his desk and knock his stack of graded essays to the floor. Lexa apologizes but can’t conceal her laughter as she bends down to help him pick up the scattered papers.

“Good morning to you too” Kane grumbles, but the smile on his face shows he isn’t annoyed.

With an eyebrow raised Kane asks “What are you doing here this early kiddo?”

Lexa sighs. “To study. My art history class is giving me trouble and I have a test today.”

Kane stands up straight and thinks for a moment.

“Well I could quiz you if you want. It might help you remember the material better.”

“I don’t want to take you away from your grading” Lexa says with a guilty look on her face.

Kane shakes his head. “Nah, you’re a welcome distraction. I need a break anyway, I’ve been grading for hours.”

Lexa shrugs her shoulders and hands him her binder, and he begins quizzing her. Lexa normally only lets her sister help her study, but Kane’s method of testing is efficient and effective. Soon Lexa is able to automatically answer every question without even having to think about it, so Kane stops once the first bell rings.

“Thanks so much Professor, I owe you one.”

“You don’t owe me anything Lexa, I was happy to help."

Lexa waits until she gets to the door before adding “And I’m sorry for scaring you this morning, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I wasn’t scared I-”

But Lexa already left the classroom and is laughing hysterically as she heads down to her locker to get the books she needs for the day.

Much to Lexa’s surprise and delight, Clarke is standing at her locker waiting for her. Her mouth runs dry when she sees that Clarke is wearing her leather jacket. Lexa now remembers giving it to Clarke the night of the party to help mask the scent of her heat, and didn’t get it back after the whole fiasco with Clarke’s parents. Clarke is facing away from her, and Lexa takes a minute to admire the way the jacket looks on her. Lexa’s tempted to let her keep it (because Clarke looks stunning in it), but it’s her favorite jacket and was a birthday present from Anya, so she would sadly have to ask for it back.

Lexa decides to play it cool, and approaches Clarke with a simple “Hey”. As soon as she turns around Lexa immediately detects something is wrong. She doesn’t look upset, but her normally radiant smile looks forced and doesn’t reach her bright cerulean eyes. Lexa drops her ‘play it cool’ stance and lets her worriedness take over her features. “Hey what’s wrong?” Lexa prods gently.

Clarke blinks rapidly, like she was just woken out of a trance and replies quickly “Nothing. I was just thinking.”

Lexa quirks her brow. “And what were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about…..you, actually. Well, what you did for me specifically. I’ve never seen an Alpha be able to resist an Omega in heat like that before….”

Lexa realizes Clarke is waiting for an explanation. “You’re my friend and I didn’t want anything to happen to you or for you to get hurt. Clarke, you have to know I would never take advantage of you, or touch you without your consent.”

Clarke nods as she takes in Lexa’s response. In a small voice she asks “So it wasn’t because you think I’m unattractive?”

If Lexa was eating something, she would have choked. Has Clarke never seen herself!? She’s freaking gorgeous, the most desirable Omega Lexa has ever laid her eyes on. _If only she knew what she did to me_. “Not at all Clarke. I find you very much attractive; I just held back my desires so I could get you home safely.”

Clarke is looking anywhere but at Lexa. She’s tapping her foot nervously, and Lexa has never seen her look so flustered before. She finds it endearing, and is glad to know that she makes Clarke just as nervous as Clarke makes her.

”Well, than I guess I just wanted to thank you. You didn’t have to do what you did for me.”

Lexa frowns internally. Something isn’t right. There was not one ounce of sincerity in what Clarke just said, and from what Lexa had learned about Clarke, it was that she never said something she didn’t mean. “Are you still in heat Clarke?”

The question makes Clarke snap her head up quickly, but she drops her head back down in shame, lip quivering “Yes, but I think it’s the last day.”

“Hey that’s okay. Heat or no heat, you’re still Clarke Griffin” Lexa shrugs her shoulders. “And that’s all that matters.” 

Clarke looks up at her with a smile on her face that finally reaches her eyes. Lexa mentally fist pumps because she obviously said the right thing to improve Clarke’s mood. The tension between the two is suddenly charged not with awkwardness, but with the need to be closer, to share a physical connection. But before Lexa can act, Clarke blurts out “Thank you!” and Lexa furrows her brows in confusion.

“Clarke, you already thanked me.”

Clarke sighs. “I know I did, but I just felt like I needed to again. You’re the only one who has ever seen me past my biology. You don’t care that I’m an Omega, you see me as a person, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted. I’m grateful to you because you make me feel like a human being and not like an object or a possession.”

Lexa’s heart clenches at what Clarke is saying. Of course Lexa knew what an Omega’s status was in Walden. They were treated as less than human, sexual objects at the mercy of Alphas, who use their bodies for pleasure. Lexa had hoped it was better for them in Arcadia, but from what Clarke is telling her it seems to be the same. Lexa wishes she could protect every single Omega on the Ark who has ever been mistreated, give them a better life, but she knows she can’t. She can only mate one Omega, protect and share a life with one. She desperately wants Clarke to be that one.

A burst of confidence surges through her, and before she can stop herself she blurts out “Do you really want to thank me Clarke?”

Clarke looks up in confusion. “Um, yes?”

“Than you should go out to dinner with me. That is, if you want to of course.”

Lexa stares earnestly at Clarke for a moment, and Clarke clears her throat before nervously saying “That’s actually something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

Now it’s Lexa’s turn to be confused. “You wanted to talk to me about going to dinner?”

“Sort of.” Lexa’s giving her a look saying ‘please elaborate’ and it amazes Clarke that they’ve known each other for such a short amount of time but can still communicate without saying anything. “I told my parents what you did for me the night of the party. They were really impressed, and want to invite you over for dinner so they can thank you and apologize.”

“Oh” is all Lexa manages to get out. She’s stunned, because she’s never been invited to an Omega’s house before. “When?”

“Tonight” Clarke says sheepishly, finally looking up to meet Lexa’s gaze.

“Tonight” Lexa echoes, and Clarke can’t tell whether the far-away look in Lexa’s eyes is a good or bad sign.

“If you already have plans, you could come another night…”

Lexa cuts her off. “No, no, tonight’s fine. I just have to tell my sister first, but it should be fine.” Clarke lets out the breath she was holding. “Also I’m never one to turn down free food so…”

“Oh shut up” Clarke laughs and slugs her playfully in the shoulder. “So I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yes but luckily for you, you’ll see me earlier than tonight. Did you study for the art history test?”

They begin walking to their homerooms. “No, I don’t study for that class. Art has always come pretty naturally to me. But I’m assuming by the way your mouth is hanging open that you had some trouble with it?”

Lexa quickly closes her jaw and straightens her back. “No, I’m not having any trouble with it at all.”

Clarke rolls her eyes and says “Yeah okay” but is smiling in amusement. She stops them outside a classroom and explains that it’s her homeroom. Lexa is about to turn to walk to her own homeroom when a pale wrist holds her back. Before Lexa can comprehend what’s going on Clarke’s arms are around her and she’s being encompassed in a gentle hug. Lexa forgets how to think when she feels Clarke’s breath tickle her ear, and hears “My house, 5:30 tonight, don’t forget.” Lexa just nods her head dumbly. And suddenly Clarke pulls away and she’s left alone standing in the hallway as the bell rings signaling she’s late for homeroom.

\-----

Lexa races down the street on her bike, not slowing at all when she crosses the border from Arcadia into Walden. As soon as the bell rang at the end of class Lexa was out the door, anxious to get home and tell Anya about going to dinner at the Griffins. _Dinner at the Griffins. Shit. What have I gotten myself into_ Lexa thinks as she skids to a stop in front of her small house. Anya’s motorcycle is out front and Lexa is grateful Anya took a day off to rest from all the double shifts she had been taking lately.

Lexa hears Anya in the kitchen and yells over her shoulder “I’m going to Clarke’s house for dinner tonight” as she dashes to her room. She starts rummaging through her closet, looking for something appropriate to wear, since she knew dinner at the Griffins would most likely be a formal event. She hears Anya open her door and glances back to see her leaning against the door frame.

“Clarke’s house, huh? You sure her crazy parents will want you around?”

Lexa rolls her eyes. Of course she had told her sister everything that happened the night of the party, but she had made sure to assure Anya that Clarke’s parents were just being protective and didn’t really mean her any harm. At least that’s what she hoped. But Lexa sees the teasing look in Anya’s eyes and throws a pillow that was on the floor at her. “Yes Anya geez. I was invited and I want to make a good impression on them.”

“Oh relax, you already saved their daughter from getting taken advantage of, how could they not like you?”

Lexa growls in frustration and turns to face a now guilty-looking Anya, and the sight makes Lexa smirk a little. “Look, I have to be at Clarke’s house in less than two hours, and I want, no _need_ them to like me because I really like Clarke, okay?”

Anya chuckles while collapsing onto Lexa’s mattress. “Man this girl’s got you whipped. You should bring her over here sometime so I could meet her. That would be a great first date, don’t you think Lexa?”

“Uh no. That sounds like a horrendous idea. Clarke’s special, I would have to take her somewhere nice.”

“So not Walden.”

“Definitely not Walden.” Lexa agrees. She frowns at Anya who is still lying on her bed and says “Now shoo, I have to shower and get ready and I don’t need you in here distracting me.”

“But Lexaaa I’m so cozy.”

“Come on Anya I’m serious. Out.” Lexa points to the door and stands sternly like a mother would when scolding her child. Anya grumbles to herself and shoots Lexa a glare before stumbling off the bed and exiting the room. Lexa continues looking for a nice outfit until she is satisfied with the dark green button up and black skinny jeans that aren’t faded or ripped that she has picked out. She showers quickly and hastily gets dressed when she sees she only has a half an hour to make the long trek to the Griffin house.

“I can drive you there if you want” she hears Anya call from the living room.

“Thanks but I would rather my hair not be an afro when I show up.”

Anya snorts and Lexa hears her muffled laughing down the hall. “I’m leaving Anya, I’ll see you later.”

“Later dork” Anya shouts as Lexa closes the front door. She looks at her watch and sees she now only has twenty five minutes to go to the market to pick up gifts for Clarke and her mother and make it in time to Clarke’s house. She’ll never make it if she walks, so she starts down her street in a light jog. Every time she starts getting sweaty she stops and keeps on walking until she can begin jogging again. _Hopefully the gifts I bought will make up for me being late._ Lexa ends up arriving to the gates of the Griffin household ten minutes late, and she really hopes Clarke’s parents aren’t offended by her lack of punctuality.

Someone is there waiting at the gate when she walks up, and opens them without Lexa even having to say a word. She walks up the path to the house and marvels again at how big it is. How can only three people possibly need that much space? Lexa walks up to the porch and is about to ring the doorbell when the door is pulled open and she is whisked inside to a gorgeous foyer. Standing in front of her is the same man who nearly attacked her a week ago, and being in his presence makes her immediately on edge.

“Nice to see you again Lexa, I’m Jake, Clarke’s father.” He holds out his hand and Lexa eyes it suspiciously before shaking it with a firm grip. “Now that we’ve formally been introduced I just want to apologize for the way I acted towards you last weekend. It was uncalled for and I honestly should have put two and two together seeing Clarke home and unharmed that you were just trying to help.”

Lexa clears her throat before replying. “It’s okay sir, I understand. Your daughter was in heat and potentially in a very dangerous situation, and you reacted accordingly. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”

“Yeah I noticed that” Jake says as he leads Lexa down a long hallway. Jake stops at the end of an intricately carved wooden staircase and calls up “Clarke, Lexa’s here!” before continuing down the hallway. “Did you know that was the first time in my entire life an Alpha has ever submitted to me? I literally thought I was dreaming, until I pinched myself and realized it was real. It was so cool, I had never felt that kind of supremeness before.”

Lexa laughs at his choice of words. She can tell Jake and Clarke are related already. They turn into a room at the end of the hall and Lexa sees it is the kitchen upon entering. Mrs. Griffin is standing at the counter cooking, and when she looks up she smiles at Lexa. Lexa smiles back. “Hello Mrs. Griffin.” She takes one of the bouquets of flowers out of her arms and hands it to her.

“Please, call me Abby. And Lexa these are beautiful, thank you. What kinds of flowers are they?”

“A mixture of lilies, orchards, and tulips. I didn’t know what you liked so I just got a few different kinds.”

“I love them. I’m going to put them in vase and sit them right in the windowsill so we can all see them.”

“Are those for me?” Lexa sees Jake pointing at the other arrangement of flowers she’s holding.

“Um no, they’re for Clarke actually.”

Jake gasps “What, I don’t get any flowers?” 

Lexa’s eyes widen and she stutters “I’m s-orry. I can run out and get you some if you like.”

Jake is laughing as Abby hits him on the shoulder, and Lexa is confused. “I’m just messing with you kid, flowers don’t really do it for me. Clarke will love the ones you got her, though."

Lexa resists the urge to puff out her chest when Jake refers to her as ‘kid’. She isn’t a kid anymore; in fact she stands almost a whole foot taller than him. Jake moves around to the doorway of the kitchen and yells out “Any day now would be great Clarke.”

A minute later Lexa hears Clarke thumping down the stairs and she arrives in the kitchen wearing a pair of fitted blue jeans with a black laced top, and Lexa has to avert her eyes from staring at her prominent cleavage.

“Sorry dad, I was just changing.”

Jake looks exasperated. “Again? Geez Clarke it’s just dinner, we’re not meeting with the chancellor or anything.”

Clarke blushed at being caught, and Lexa held back her snickers and moves to save Clarke from her embarrassment. “These are for you.” Lexa hands her the flowers. “They’re blue roses, and they’re actually pretty rare. I thought they’d match your eyes so...” Lexa nervously rubs the back of her neck.

Clarke flashes her a dazzling smile and now Lexa hopes she isn’t the one blushing. Clarke gives them a big whiff and holds them close to her eyes. “Well, do they match?” The roses aren’t too light or too dark, and they blend with Clarke’s eyes perfectly.

Abby speaks up. “Wow, I wouldn’t be surprised if they're the exact same color. They look amazing.”

Lexa beams, happy that her gifts were well-received. Abby takes the flowers from Clarke and puts them in another vase on the windowsill. They all make small talk around the kitchen while Abby finishes cooking dinner. Lexa finds herself already very at ease with the Griffins, and it surprises her because normally it takes her awhile to feel comfortable around new people. As soon as Abby finishes the last dish she announces it’s time to eat, and Lexa, Clarke, and Jake file into the dining room.

As soon as she enters, she’s hit with the smell of a bunch of homemade recipes all blended into one aroma, and her mouth waters. She has never seen so much food in her life, and she tries not to show her surprise as she takes it all in. Different kinds of breads, chicken, and vegetables are spread across the vast dining room table, making Lexa’s stomach growl impatiently.

Lexa sits in front of Clarke, and Jake and Abby sit at either end of the table. As soon as the blessing is finished, Lexa passes her plate around to get a sample of everything. She knows she should limit herself, but can’t help piling up all the gourmet foods onto her plate. She has to hold back a moan at her first bite, because she had never known food could taste so good.

“So Lexa, how long have you been going to Ark Academy?”

Lexa’s snaps out of her food-filled daze at the sound of Jake’s voice. It takes her a minute to finish chewing before she can answer him.

“Just this year. I actually started late, because all my files and information took a few weeks to get transferred from my old school in Walden to Ark Academy.”

Jake visibly grimaces. “Ah man, starting school late is tough. I hope all the students helped you out and made you feel welcome.”

Lexa thinks of Murphy, and her jaw clenches. “Most everyone has been really welcoming. I like it there so far.”

Jake smiles at her. “Well that’s good to hear.”

They all go back to eating in silence. Lexa feels a kick under the table and looks up at Clarke. She’s innocently eating her dinner and won’t meet Lexa’s gaze. _Oh it’s on._ Lexa quickly nudges Clarke’s thigh under the table then brings her legs up to where Clarke can’t reach them. She sees Clarke frowning in concentration as she sinks lower and lower in her chair, trying in vain to find Lexa’s legs.

Abby’s voice cuts them out of their little game. “Clarke what are you doing? Sit up in your chair and eat properly.”

Clarke grumbles and glares at Lexa. When Lexa’s sure her parents aren’t looking, she sticks her tongue out at Clarke, who retaliates by flipping her middle finger at Lexa. They continue back and forth until the conversation shifts back to Lexa.

“You have any siblings, Lexa?”

“I do, my older sister Anya. I live with her in Walden.” Lexa always feels proud whenever she tells people about Anya, even if they don’t know all the things she’s had to endure to provide a home for Lexa.

“Aw, if we’d had known that you could have brought her over for dinner as well. Next time, I guess.”

Lexa nods enthusiastically at Jake, because she knows Anya would love all the food they had here.

Abby looks uncomfortable, and hesitantly asks “Is your sister an Alpha?”

Lexa puts her fork down, unsure of where this is going. “Yes, she is.”

Abby speaks up. “Well than maybe that wouldn’t be the best idea.”

Lexa has no idea what she’s talking about, but Clarke groans and rolls her eyes. “Mom, please, not now.”

“Stop it Clarke. You know having three strong Alphas in close vicinity to you can be very overwhelming. I’m doing this for your own good.”

“Mom, I’m surrounded by Alphas every day at school, this will be no different. I would be completely fine.” Lexa can tell Clarke is getting really upset, but Abby either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care as she pushes on.

“This isn’t up for discussion Clarke. I don’t want to hear of this again.”

Lexa can’t tell if Clarke’s going to burst out crying or murder her mother as she glares down at the table for a couple minutes before quickly jumping up and leaving the room. Abby leans back into her chair and sighs. Jake looks like he wants to something but firmly keeps his mouth shut. Lexa is wondering if the best thing for her to do would be to leave when Jake cuts through the awkward silence.

“Well she’ll be angry at us for a while. You can try talking to her if you want, Lexa."

Both Lexa and Abby look at him like he’s crazy. Lexa finally clears her throat and says “I guess I could try.”

"Her room is upstairs, last door on the right.”

Lexa clears her plate and grabs a piece of cake from the kitchen before heading upstairs to Clarke’s room.

\-----

Lexa is anxiously standing in front of Clarke’s door, straining her ears to hear through the wood. Nothing. She hears nothing. She sits against the wall and wonders how dinner went to shit so quickly. One minute they were all laughing and were engaged in conversation, and the next minute Clarke is storming out the room like she had just been insulted. And she was, in a way.

Lexa sits a little longer before she decides to just be courageous and knock on her door. She knocks softly at first and gets no response, so she knocks harder the second time. She hears Clarke call out “Go away” from inside the room and Lexa almost considers listening to her. Key word being almost.

“Hey Clarke, it’s not your parents. It’s me, Lexa.” No response.

“I um, I brought you a piece a cake because we sort of missed desert.” Still no response.

“It’s a chocolate piece.”

Of course Clarke opens the door at that. “It’s chocolate?” Clarke sniffles.

“Yes it’s chocolate.” Lexa smiles and hands Clarke the plastic plate and gets a better glimpse of her when she moves into the lit hallway. It was obvious she had been crying, her face was red and splotchy and the smell of salt was mixed into her Omega musk. Clarke leaves the door open as she walks back into her bedroom and Lexa takes that as an invitation to follow her.

The first thing Lexa notices is that like her house, Clarke’s room is enormous. The second thing she notices are the masterpieces that cover the walls, drawings and paintings and every kind of art you could ever imagine. “Did you draw all this?” Lexa asks with awe apparent in her voice.

“Yes.”

Clarke’s voice is cold and emotionless, and Lexa stops gawking at the walls and moves closer to Clarke. She can study the art closer another day, because right now Clarke is upset and she wants to figure out why.

After a few tense, silent moments, Clarke breaks the silence. “My parents think I’m weak.”

“That’s not true, I’m sure-”

Clarke growls, and Lexa falls silent. Her growl turns into a howl, filled with agony and despair, and Lexa immediately begins to move toward her. Clarke whirls around before Lexa can take another step and lets out an even louder growl. “Don’t come near me. This is all your fault!”

Lexa points to herself and turns around, because there’s no way Clarke is talking to her. She hasn't done anything to evoke Clarke’s anger upon her, she was there only trying to offer Clarke comfort. There are a million things Lexa wants to say but she keeps her mouth shut and waits for Clarke to continue. Letting Clarke get all her anger and frustration out will be good and will make her feel better after she's finished.

Clarke points to herself and says “I hate this. I hate my biology and the fact that being an Omega makes me have to rely on people like you to come save me all the time. I can't stand that I’m not able to defend or protect myself, and I hate that I can’t do any of the things I want to do without help from an Alpha.”

Clarke is heaving at this point, and her voice is getting higher and higher with every word she says. Lexa’s afraid Clarke’s parents will come upstairs and yell at her for making Clarke even more upset, but there isn’t anything she can do to stop Clarke’s rampage.

“And you want to know what I hate the most? My parents are always saying I have so much potential to do big things and break through the submissive stereotype Omegas have always had, but they never let me try! They always hold me back, and I’m so sick of it!”

Clarke is full out sobbing now, and Lexa honestly doesn’t know what to do. It hurts Lexa to see Clarke so upset so she lets her Alpha instincts for comforting a mate take over. Lexa slowly shuffles closer to the distraught girl before putting her hands lightly on Clarke’s shoulders and pulling her into a hug. Lexa makes sure to keep her embrace loose and gentle in case she wants to pull back, but Clarke grips onto her like she’s the difference between eternal life and certain death. Soon Clarke is crying even harder, and Lexa panics as Clarke starts stumbling against her, unable to hold her own weight anymore.

Lexa carefully picks Clarke up, the same way she had lifted Raven at the party, and carries her over to the chair sitting across from her bed. Lexa sits and pulls Clarke into her lap, allowing her to mold her trembling body into Lexa’s torso. Lexa rubs her back in soothing circles, her hands never wandering below her lower back, and hums a lullaby her mother used to sing to help her fall asleep. Her hums soon turn into purrs, and she feels Clarke relax into her chest and lets out a soft sigh of relief. They don’t talk for a while, and Lexa keeps gently massaging Clarke’s back until she’s sure Clarke has fallen asleep on her.

It’s not until she starts purring that Lexa knows she’s awake, and Lexa relishes in the fact that she is the reason Clarke is so comfortable and pliant in her arms. Spending all this time consoling Clarke had given Lexa plenty of time to think, and her hands abruptly stop on Clarke’s back when she gets an ingenious idea.

“Mmm why’d you stop?” Clarke croaks out.

“I have an idea.”

“Yeah that’s great. Can you keep rubbing my back? That felt good.”

“Clarke it’s something that could help you, don’t you want to hear it?”

She picks her head up off Lexa’s chest and sighs. “Fine. As long as you keep massaging me after.”

“Okay” Lexa agrees. She stays quiet for a few minutes, trying to formulate a good way to tell her idea to the Omega laying in her arms. Clarke rests her head on Lexa’s shoulder and wraps her arms tighter around Lexa’s middle, making it harder for Lexa to concentrate.

“I think I know a way to help make you be able to resist submitting to an Alpha.”

That gets Clarke’s attention. She lifts her head up and looks at Lexa with wide eyes, encouraging her to continue. Their faces are so close, and every time Lexa breaths she smells Clarke’s intoxicating scent wrapped in her own. It makes her dizzy, so she tries to focus on telling her idea to Clarke.

“What if you had me, an Alpha, help you resist submitting by letting me push my stronger pheromones on you?”

“Lexa, that’d just force me to submit. I’d never be able to withstand your pheromones.” Clarke slumps against Lexa, disappointed.

“Ah, but I’m not done yet.” Lexa was getting excited now, waving her hands around as she explained. “I compared the idea to me running to get conditioned for basketball. The more you run, the more stamina you get and endurance you have. Same thing with pheromones. The more I unleash on you, the more you get used to them and you’ll eventually become strong enough to withstand them.”

It takes Clarke a moment, but when she finally understands what Lexa is saying, she starts tapping her on the shoulder excitedly. “Oh my gosh Lexa, that’s genius! How did I never think of that?”

Lexa says very seriously “Not everyone can be a genius like me Clarke.”

Clarke goes from tapping to hitting her shoulder, and Lexa laughs when she hears Clarke mutter “rude” under her breath. Her laugh turns into a content sigh when Clarke curls back into her, and Lexa begins stroking up and down Clarke’s back again like she said she would. This time Clarke really does fall asleep, and Lexa assumes it’s because of the emotionally draining conversation they had just had.

She sits with Clarke in her lap for a little while longer, before getting up and depositing Clarke gently on her bed. It takes Lexa a few minutes to get Clarke to let go of the strong grip she had on her shirt. She pulls a blanket up over her so she won’t get cold, and places a reverent kiss on Clarke’s forehead. When Clarke’s lips twitch up into a small smile in her sleep, Lexa can’t help but peck her forehead again. Lexa looks at Clarke one last time and smiles to herself before heading back downstairs.

\-----

Abby and Jake aren’t in the kitchen, and she ends up wandering around the entire downstairs for ten minutes before she finds them in what she assumes is the living room. Jake sees her first. “Hey Lexa, how’d it go?”

“Pretty good. I think she’s better now, and she’s just um…getting ready for bed.”

“Thanks for talking some sense into her, she can get a little feisty when she’s angry.”

What Lexa really wants to say is “Gee thanks for telling me that after the fact”, but she just nods her head in his direction to let him know she heard him.

Abby suddenly hops up from where she was sitting and says “Before you go Lexa I wrapped up some leftovers for you to take home to your sister.”

Lexa smiled at Abby. “Thank you, she’ll appreciate that very much.”

“I’ll be right back, you stay right there.”

Jake watches Abby leave before getting up and making his way over to Lexa. “Hey, I really appreciate what you did for Clarke tonight. Abby can be a little too overprotective sometimes, and I’m glad you were here to help her cool down. She’s lucky to have you as a friend.”

Lexa’s about to respond to the compliment when she sees Jake’s hand rising up out of the corner of her eye. She freezes, and time stops for Lexa. Her voice stops working, and she can’t beg Jake to stop as his hand descends towards her shoulder. Just before his hand hits, Lexa flinches violently, startling both Jake and Abby who was standing by the door with leftovers in her hand.

Lexa cowers and barely gets out “I have to go” before she bolts out of the room. She can hear Jake and Abby’s protests but doesn’t slow down. All she knows is that she has to get out of there, fast. Thankfully the gates are opened and she doesn’t have to wait for someone to open them for her as she speeds off the Griffin’s property and veers into the street. She can feel her breath coming out in short pants and barely makes it to a secluded alleyway before having a full on panic attack.

All she can see in front of her is her father’s hand coming down on her repeatedly, so hard that red handprints are left behind on her skin. She wishes Anya was with her, because she was the only one other than her mother to ever protect her from him. But Anya’s miles away, and Lexa has no way to get in contact with her. All she can do is curl into a ball and keep rocking herself back and forth until her breathing finally starts to even out. 

Lexa leans back against the wall, exhausted. She manages to push herself up onto shaky feet and walk back home, feeling hopeless and alone.

\-----

“What did you do to her to make her react like that?”

“I didn’t do anything, I was just putting my hand on her shoulder as a friendly gesture!”

Back at the Griffin house, Abby and Jake were arguing about what had just happened with Lexa. They are both trying to come up with a conclusion to why she had responded to simple human contact so strongly. It wasn’t until Abby voiced her suspicions that she put two and two together.

“Did you see her eye? It looked like someone punched her.”

“Yeah so? Clarke already told us about that last week.” Jake responds, sounding somewhat bored.

“Clarke told us she got in a fight, but she didn’t tell us with whom.”

“So… your point?

“And did you notice the way she looked at dinner when she walked into the dining room? She looked like she had never seen food before in her life.”

Jake was getting very impatient. “Yes I did notice. What’s that got to do with anything?”

Abby bites her lip before turning to look straight at Jake. “I think this Anya girl is abusing Lexa.”

Jake looks at her, and starts nodding his head after thinking about it for a moment.

Little did they know that Clarke was listening to them from behind the doorway in the foyer. She had woken up to the sound of her parents yelling, and had gone downstairs to see what all the commotion was about. Instead of the full blown argument she thought it would be, she finds her parents calmly talking in the living room. The new information she hears about Lexa shocks her, and she stands in disbelief for a moment as her brain processes what she’s hearing. _Lexa being abused?_ The thought makes her shudder. She listens for a few more minutes before silently running back upstairs to her room.


	6. Bellamy and Lexa's Backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bellamy gives Lexa "the talk" (sort of), Lexa tells Clarke about her backstory, Clarke meets Anya, and there's a crazy person with a gun running around Arcadia??? Tell me what you think!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been MIA the past month and a half, but here's a nice early 4th of July present! Hope you guys have a great day tomorrow but just remember to stay safe. Until next time <3

Two months have passed since Lexa started at Ark Academy. Between school, basketball training, her new job, and hanging out with Clarke time has flown by and Lexa can hardly believe it’s almost November already. About a week after her dinner at the Griffins, she passed a junkyard on the way home from school. A man was struggling to pick up some heavy pieces of lumber, so of course Lexa had gone and offered to help him move them. After they finished he introduced himself as Sinclair and basically offered Lexa a part time job working for him after seeing how effortlessly she had picked up some of the heavier fragments of scrap metal. Lexa, who was overjoyed, quickly agreed and raced home to tell Anya she had gotten a job. When she told her older sister the Alpha’s face lit up.

She had looked Lexa straight in the eyes with a big smile on her face and said “Good work kiddo.” Lexa had a grin on her face the whole rest of the night.

Since that day Lexa had worked three shifts at the junkyard. Her tasks were always easy and mindless: move this pile of scraps from here to there, unload the back of the truck, separate different parts into piles, etc. She enjoyed having extra time to think, and she absolutely loved the fact that her job required physical activity. One of Lexa’s greatest fears is one day having to work a job where it’s necessary to sit at a desk for eight hours, cramped in a tiny cubicle, wearing uncomfortable, businesslike clothes while acting professional and pretending like she actually wants to be there. No, Lexa is a free spirit, not meant to work an office job but to move around, inspire people, and most of all, just _be_.

During her time at work Lexa thought a lot about her conversations with Clarke. She picked them apart, and tried to find any hidden meanings or subtle hints Clarke might be casually trying to give her. They’ve definitely gotten a lot closer since the dinner at Clarke’s house. Every morning Lexa waits for Clarke at her locker and walks her to homeroom. She now sits on the right side of Clarke in art history, and they always pair up in gym class when Indra tells everyone to pick a partner. Lexa feels herself falling for the blonde Omega more and more each day, and she doesn’t know whether to be scared or excited. A real relationship with feelings involved would be something entirely new for the Alpha, and she was terrified she would somehow mess everything up by making a careless mistake.

Right now Lexa didn’t know what she wanted, so she decided to hold off on her crush for now and just continue being friends with Clarke. The Alpha in her was unsatisfied with her decision, but she knows it is her best option right now. It bothers her to no end when she sees Bellamy and Wells casually put their arms around her shoulders while walking down the hallway, or when she catches Finn gazing hungrily at Clarke from across the lunchroom. It makes her possessive instincts go into overdrive, and she has to look away and calm herself down so she doesn’t get too aggressive.

Lexa is roused from her thoughts when Anya comes sprinting into the kitchen and bangs her foot into one of the cabinets.

“God dammit!”

Anya howls out in pain, clutching her foot and slowly sliding to the floor dramatically.

Lexa just rolls her eyes and continues eating her cereal.

“Lexa don’t just sit there! Help me, I’m dying.”

Lexa chuckles and looks up from her bowl. “Uh oh, she’s flat-lining, call it!”

“Oh shut the fuck up” Anya grumbles while stumbling to her feet.

Lexa chuckles some more. “What the heck were you storming in here for anyway?”

Anya’s eyes widen and she begins running around the kitchen again, rummaging through drawers searching for an unknown item. At last she finds what she was looking for and holds them up in victory, which Lexa identifies as her keys to the motorcycle.

Anya turns to face Lexa. “I’m late for work. I’m taking a double shift again so I don’t know if I’ll see you at all tonight….”

Ever since Anya got her new job and Lexa started working at the junkyard, they almost never see each other anymore. Lexa is almost always gone before Anya wakes up in the morning, and Anya’s usually already left for her night shifts by the time Lexa gets home. The younger Alpha can hear the guilt in her sister’s voice, and although she’s a little disappointed, she doesn’t want to make Anya feel worse than she already does.

Lexa shrugs her shoulders. “No it’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Anya stares at her sister for a minute, trying to will Lexa into showing any sign of emotion on her face before grabbing her bag and briskly leaving.

When Lexa hears the front door slam she lets out a sad sigh and stares down at her half eaten bowl of cereal until it’s time for her to leave for school.

\-----

She stares at her feet as she walks up the thirteen polished stairs and into the crowded hallway. Lexa’s so deep in thought she doesn’t notice the way the Betas and Alphas slowly part ways to make room for Lexa to walk, or the Omegas that blush and giggle as she passes them on her way to the junior lockers. She doesn’t even realize she walked to her locker instead of Clarke’s until she nearly collides with Clarke after putting away books she doesn’t need.

“Oh god Clarke I’m sorry, are you okay?”

Lexa frantically bends down to help Clarke pick up her books she’d so graciously knocked out of her hands.

Clarke laughs “Relax Lexa, I’m fine, I promise.”

Lexa lets out a breath of relief only to become breathless again a second later when she really gets a good look at Clarke. She looks radiant today, just as she does every day, with her blonde hair pulled up in a high ponytail and the smile on her face making Lexa forget why she was even sulking in the first place. She smells too pure to be true, and Lexa wonders how Clarke makes it appear so easy to look absolutely stunning in a loose, paint-splattered t-shirt and ripped jean shorts.

“What were you thinking about?”

Clarke’s soft, melodious voice shakes Lexa out of her shameful gazing and she clears her throat “Nothing really. Anya’s taking a double shift again today.”

Clarke grips her arm sympathetically. She knows how much it bothers Lexa that her sister has to work almost non-stop just so they can make ends meet.

“At least you got a job now though, how’s that been going?”

Lexa’s lips turn into a small grin “I got my first paycheck last night.”

Clarke shrieks excitedly, and the grip on her arm becomes impossibly tighter. As they both start walking towards Clarke’s homeroom, she lets go of her arm and Lexa is disappointed until Clarke links their arms together.

“That’s awesome! What did Anya say when she saw?”

“She was pretty freaking happy, especially when she saw the amount. It was like a huge weight was just lifted off her shoulders.” Lexa smiles at the thought of finally being able to help her sister out.

“I’m proud of you, and I’m sure Anya is so proud of you too.”

Lexa grins down at Clarke when they arrive to her homeroom. “Thanks Clarke, it means a lot.”

And Lexa really meant it. She can’t remember the last time someone had actually told her they were proud of her. Anya tries, but she isn’t the best with showing affection. 

“I really want to meet her, you know. Anya.”

Lexa sighs and tries not to frown at the admission. Clarke had been bugging her about it a lot lately how ‘you got to meet my family, it’s only fair I should get to meet yours.’

“I know you do, I just don’t think it’s the best idea….yet.”

Clarke purses her lips. “Lexa, if it has anything to do with what my mom said at dinner, I’m fine with-”

“No, no” Lexa breaks in, “that’s not it at all.”

Clarke looks at her expectantly.

“Anya’s not the …. friendliest person out there. She can be really intense and intimidating at first and I don’t want her to offend you or anything. Plus all she ever wants to do in front of my friends is embarrass me so of course I want to prolong _that_ for as long as possible.”

“Aw Lexa, are you afraid I’ll laugh if she shows me your baby pictures?”

Lexa glares at her and pretends to pout.

“Clarke” Lexa grumbles and the omega laughs at the pathetic face Lexa’s making.

“Just for the record, I think you would have been a very cute little pup.” Clarke says while trying to contain her laughter.

“Clarke, out of all the words that describe me ‘cute’ and ‘little’ are not some of them.”

“You may not be little anymore but you’re still cute to me.”

As soon as the words leave Clarke’s mouth both of their faces turn a light shade of pink, and Lexa notices just how close they actually are. Her body feels overheated, and although moving away from Clarke is the last thing she wants to do, she knows she needs to in order to focus on their conversation. She gently unlinks their arms and is grateful to see that Clarke doesn’t seem to mind.

“How about I offer a proposition?”

“I’m listening” Clarke replies, sounding intrigued.

“Since I’ve been to your house a couple times now, how about after school you come over to my house and hang out a bit? I’ll even give you a tour.”

Clarke’s eyes widen in excitement before letting out a screeching “Yes!” and throwing her arms around Lexa and basically knocking her back into the lockers.

Lexa just laughs and wraps her arms tighter around Clarke and even picks her up and spins her around a bit. A couple minutes later Clarke pulls away and Lexa has to stop herself from whining in protest.

“I should be able to come, but let me just text my dad real quick to make sure.”

Lexa hums quietly while she waits. They only have about two minutes before the bell will ring, and Lexa’s getting impatient.

“Did he respond?”

Clarke shakes her head. “Not yet, but I’m sure he’ll say yes; he loves you.”

The bell then decides to end their conversation, making all the kids in the hallway groan in annoyance.

“I’ll tell you if I can come or not at lunch today, alright?” Clarke flashes her a big smile before turning to walk into homeroom. Lexa smiles back and tries to stop the butterflies erupting in her stomach as she turns and starts walking down the hallway.

Her happiness, however, is short lived when halfway to her homeroom a hand suddenly shoots out and grabs Lexa from a small perpendicular hallway. Before the Alpha can react she is roughly pulled into a side corridor leading to the bathrooms. She is beyond angry because she’s sure this is Murphy’s doing but when her captor turns around the person standing in front of her is none other than Bellamy Blake.

Her anger is quickly replaced with curiosity, but she remains wary because she doesn’t know Bellamy well enough to trust him. She decides to just cut to the chase.

“What do you want Blake?”

He doesn’t answer for a while, and doesn’t even look up at her as she stands there awkwardly waiting for him to say something. She’s getting really frustrated because if she waits any longer she’ll be late for homeroom, and she doesn’t need any reasons to get on Mrs. Greene’s bad side.

Finally Lexa gets fed up enough to bitterly spit out “Great talk. I have to go” before swiftly turning away.

Before Lexa can even comprehend what’s happening her back is slammed against the wall and Bellamy is in her face, snarling and growling.

“What do you want from Clarke, huh? Cause if you want something more than a friendship from her, you’re going to have to go through me first.”

Lexa cannot believe what she’s hearing. What is he, her personal body guard or something? Lexa lets out a fierce snarl of her own and just like that, the tables turn drastically. Bellamy is a strong Alpha, but Lexa’s much stronger. She maneuvers herself out from Bellamy’s tight grip and flips him around so that he is now the one with his back against the wall. Lexa does not miss him gulp, and she smirks with satisfaction.

“That’s better. Now where were we?” Lexa says smugly while she watches Bellamy desperately try to free himself from her strong grip.

He gasps out “Look I don’t want any trouble, just stay away from Clarke okay? You’re no good for her.”

His words do sting, as much as she doesn’t want to admit it. She’s spent her whole life trying to convince herself she’s good enough, and trying to prove to everyone around her through school and sports. She tries not to let Bellamy see her inner turmoil so she slams him back into the wall and growls.

“You don’t know me Blake, and you have no right to go around making blind accusations like that just because you have a thing for Clarke too.”

Lexa braces herself for the impact she’s sure is coming, but cracks her eyes open a few seconds later when she hears laughter. She is beyond confused at the sight in front of her. Bellamy is doubled over, laughing, and Lexa is so shocked she lets go of her iron grip on his shoulders. Once Bellamy finally gets ahold of himself, he finds Lexa still standing in front of him with an unimpressed look on her face.

“You think I like Clarke? Like want to be her mate?” Bellamy questions, and Lexa slowly nods her head, unsure of where this is going.

Bellamy shakes his head and chuckles. “Clarke and I are just friends, have been since we were little pups. Quite honestly it would be weird to be anything more than a brother to her.” He subtly frowned at the thought, and Lexa feels like he’s telling the truth. But his explanation doesn’t explain why he wants Lexa to stay away from Clarke.

“So then you should have no problem with me wanting to be with Clarke” Lexa says coldly.

Bellamy’s shoulders sag and he lets out a long sigh. He stares at Lexa for a minute, lost in thought, as if calculating the next best thing to say.

“Clarke is my best friend, and the last thing I want is for her to get hurt again.”

Lexa frowns. “What do you mean ‘again’?”

Bellamy looks away guiltily, much like Octavia had done when she had let information slip at the party.

“Bellamy” Lexa says through gritted teeth.

Bellamy makes eye contact with Lexa. “Look, it’s not my place to tell you the specifics, but I will say that something bad happened between Clarke and an Alpha that goes to school here about two years ago.”

Lexa takes a moment to drink in the information Bellamy just told her, and before she can stop herself she lets out a muffled “who”, still in disbelief that any Alpha would be stupid enough to hurt Clarke.

Bellamy shakes his head. “I can’t answer that. Clarke will tell you eventually, you just have to give her time. It took her months before she told me and O the details about it, but we were there for her until she was ready.”

Lexa’s shoulders sag. “I don’t know how to do that.”

Her whole demeanor has changed dramatically, going from angry and demanding to looking hopeless and small in less than five minutes. Bellamy gives her a knowing smile, trying to lift her spirits a bit.

“I know what you mean. It’s hard when all you want to do is be there for somebody, but they won’t let you in enough to help. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Be her friend. Open up to her a little bit about yourself. Maybe knowing that she’s not the only one with a dark past will help her more than you think.”

Lexa sharply looks up at him. How did he know about her past? Did he somehow snoop through some of her school files? Lexa starts panicking a little at the thought of anyone reading through her private records.

Bellamy must notice the panicked look on her face, because he gives her a knowing look before saying “Hey, relax, I haven’t looked at any of your transcripts. It’s just…. you are from Walden, aren’t you?”

Lexa tenses and slowly nods.

“Well it couldn’t have been a walk in the park growing up there, right?

Lexa glumly looks down at the floor and nods again.

“Tell her about it. Not just Walden in general, but your personal story. Then maybe she’ll open up about hers.”

Lexa nods again, but more enthusiastically this time. It _is_ a good plan. She quickly looks up at Bellamy and eyes him suspiciously. “Why are you helping me? You were just threatening me a few minutes ago.”

Bellamy lets out a full bellied laugh. “I just wanted to scare you. I actually think you could be good for Clarke, so don’t mess it up. No pressure.”

“Right, no pressure” Lexa muttered, and before Bellamy could say anything else, the bell rang over their heads, signaling they were late for homeroom.

“Great talk, Woods. I gotta run.”

Before Lexa could reply, he had already raced passed her and headed down the hallway in the opposite direction of her homeroom. ‘What just happened?’ was her only thought as she made her way to class.

\-----

All throughout the day Lexa fidgets with excitement. _Clarke Griffin is coming to my house_ is the only giddy thought she could focus on, resulting in time passing rather quickly. Before she knew it, she was sitting in her last class of the day, art history, tapping her feet impatiently waiting for Clarke to arrive. Like always, her and Wells stumble in just as the bell rings, and Mrs. Green gives them a disapproving look. Wells has the decency to look somewhat guilty, but Clarke is totally oblivious and smiles widely when she sees Lexa. It warms Lexa’s heart and makes her feel something she’s never felt before.

Clarke slumps into the seat next to her and class begins, Mrs. Green going over endless facts from the Renaissance period in Europe until Lexa’s eyes glaze over from boredom and exhaustion. Lexa still finds it endearing how captivated Clarke is with the subject, hanging off of every word Mrs. Green says with an excited gleam in her eyes. Yeah, Clarke is definitely the only reason Lexa stays awake in this class.

Lexa is shaken out of her stupor when suddenly Clarke is standing in front of her desk, looking down at her with an amused look on her face.

The Alpha lazily picks her head up and notices the now-empty classroom.

“Where’d everybody go?”

“Class is over sleepyhead. Didn’t you hear the bell ring?”

“No.” Lexa replies with a sheepish grin.

She stands up and stretches, immediately towering over Clarke. She doesn’t notice the way Clarke follows her every movement, entranced by her flexing muscles and exposed skin.

Lexa looks down at Clarke with a shy smile “Are you ready to go?”

“I’m ready if you are.”

They leave the classroom together arm in arm, and when they exit the school they turn left, to go to Walden, instead of right, the direction to Clarke’s house. They don’t speak much while they walk, Lexa’s never been the best at small talk and Clarke seems interested enough just observing her surroundings.

When they reach the border fence separating Arcadia from Walden, Lexa checks with Clarke one last time to make sure she’s okay with visiting Lexa’s hometown. Clarke says she’s fine and they venture in and navigate their way through the dirty and crowded streets towards Lexa’s house. Lexa makes sure to avoid the back alley shortcuts she normally takes because that’s where most gangs and packs hang out to deal drugs.

About five minutes away from her house, Lexa begins to panic. She looks around her poverty stricken neighborhood, and remembers where Clarke comes from: the wealthiest section of Arcadia, where unemployment and crime is lowest on the entire Ark. Clarke’s kitchen is easily probably bigger than her whole house. Lexa tries not to let her insecurities show as she abruptly stops in front of her house, causing Clarke to nearly run into her back.

Lexa swallows “I’m sorry.”

"It’s okay. Why’d we stop?"

“Because we’re here” is Lexa’s simple reply.

Clarke finally looks away from Lexa and focuses on the small house in front of her. Lexa taps her feet nervously, impatiently waiting for Clarke to say something.

“I like it” Clarke suddenly says, and starts walking towards the front porch.

Lexa just shakes her head, embarrassed, and runs to catch up to her.

“You don’t have to lie, Clarke. It’s an ugly house, I know, so I won’t feel bad if you give your honest opinion.”

Clarke spins around so fast that it is now Lexa that almost rams into her.

The blonde Omega points her finger accusingly at Lexa. “You should know by now that I speak my mind and I don’t say anything I don’t mean. I like your house Lexa. I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.”

“But why? It’s so….” Lexa scrunches her face up and doesn’t finish the sentence.

Clarke laughs at her face and links their arms together once again. “Lexa, not everything that has beauty is always beautiful on the outside. Sometimes it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

Lexa thinks about what Clarke is saying for a moment, and she gets a strange feeling that Clarke is talking about much more than just her house. But she shrugs it off when Clarke starts tugging on her arm.

“Come on, let’s go inside. I think someone promised me a tour.”

\-----

Lexa had shown Clarke almost her whole house (minus Anya’s room), and the last room she had to show her was her own room. Lexa was a bit nervous because Anya was the only person who’s been in her room other than herself, and she doesn’t know what Clarke will think of it. It’s definitely plainer and less personal than Clarke’s room, since Lexa isn’t really into art or decorating.

Lexa opens the door to her room, and allows Clarke to enter first. Her room isn’t messy per say, but she does have a few things sprawled out on the floor and mattress. Clarke looks around the small space while Lexa puts her backpack down and pretends to look through some papers in one of her folders.

“Is this your mom?

Lexa looks up to find Clarke holding a tiny picture frame that was sitting on her desk. The Alpha nods and looks down when she feels tears well up in her eyes.

“She’s really beautiful” Clarke comments, and that’s enough to silently send Lexa over the edge.

While Clarke is putting the picture frame back, Lexa lies back on her mattress and let the tears stream quietly down her face. Clarke turns around to face Lexa and finds her crying and curled into a ball, shaking from trying to repress her sobs.

“Oh baby what’s wrong?” Clarke coos, making her way over to the bed.

Lexa doesn’t respond, but she lifts her head up and points at the picture of her mother. One look to where Lexa is pointing and Clarke understands why she is upset. The Omega slowly makes her way over to Lexa, who is now lying down with her body angled away from the picture.

Clarke sits on the edge of the mattress and gently touches Lexa’s arm as not to startle her, and when Lexa doesn’t respond negatively to the touch, she starts to soothingly rub up and down the upset Alpha’s arm. They stay like that for a while and Lexa starts leaning into Clarke’s touch more and more, until she is basically burrowed in Clarke’s lap. Clarke’s arm starts to get tired and the position she’s sitting in is hurting her back, but the second she begins to move Lexa growls softly and tightens her arms around Clarke’s waist.

“Lexa I’m not going anywhere, I just want to lay down with you, is that okay?”

Clarke knows Lexa is upset and doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable, especially if she just wants to be left alone. But Lexa nods her head and scoots over to make more room for Clarke. As soon as she lays back, Lexa rolls into her and buries her face in the crook of Clarke’s neck, inhaling her sweet scent. Clarke starts running her fingers through Lexa’s hair, and the usually stoic, uptight Alpha becomes boneless in the blonde’s arms. Lexa stopped crying long ago, but was content to stay in the safe and comforting embrace Clarke was offering.

Clarke shifted a little in Lexa’s arms to face her. “Do you want to talk about her? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but it might help you feel better if you talk about it.”

Lexa reluctantly lifts her head from the heat of Clarke’s neck, and turns around so that she is fully facing Clarke. Lexa doesn’t look Clarke in the eyes when she starts talking.

“Her name was Natasha Alexandria Woods. She was really young when she had Anya and me, so she had to drop out of school in order to talk care of us. She gave us everything, always putting our needs above her own. She loved us so much, and we loved her too. Everything was perfect until…”

Lexa gulps and takes a deep breath. Clarke squeezes Lexa’s hand to encourage her to keep going.

“Everything was perfect until my father, Robert Manalo Woods, lost his job when I was about five years old.”

Lexa’s voice became cold at the mention of her father, and Clarke could tell what Lexa was about to tell her wouldn’t be good.

“He was an Alpha with a very short temper, but for some reason my mom married him anyway. Instead of just sucking it up and going to look for another job, he started going out to bars every night and coming home so drunk that he immediately passed out. This went on for six months and then… he started getting abusive.”

Clarke starts holding on to Lexa tighter, and almost doesn’t want to hear the rest of what happened, but she had offered to listen and owed that much to Lexa.

“At first he just did it to mom while we were asleep, but he got bored with that and started hitting me and Anya when mom was out. I was about six at that point, and Anya was nine. Other than mom, Anya got the worst of it from him, because she was always trying to protect me. But sometimes, she couldn’t stop him from coming at me, and hurting me.”

Clarke now has tears in her eyes along with Lexa, and can’t imagine a small, scared Lexa cowering under her father’s abusive hand. How could someone’s own parents, the people who are supposed to support and protect their children unconditionally, ever hit their kids? Clarke didn’t understand.

“This went on for two years, until I was eight. Then it all finally stopped.”

Clarke let out a breath of relief, happy that Lexa’s suffering had finally ended. Until Lexa tore through the silence with a trembling voice, and broke Clarke’s heart all over again.

“He shot her.”

Time stood still for Clarke and Lexa. Those three words repeated themselves over and over in Clarke’s head. _He shot her._ She was in utter disbelief. Clarke knew Lexa’s mother was killed but she never would have guessed it was by her own _husband._

“He had gotten home pretty late, and didn’t say anything when he came in. Anya was in her room, and my mom was in the den. Before we knew it, a gunshot went off. He left right after he did it and never came back, and the authorities never found him. When paramedics got to the house, mom was already dead.”

Utter silence filled the room. Clarke was speechless and looks more upset than Lexa is. Lexa desperately wants to tell Clarke that she was there, that she saw her father shoot her mother with no remorse, but can’t form the words. They hold each other close until their crying stops and shivering subsides. Clarke breaks the silence first.

“You said authorities never caught your father?”

Lexa nods.

“So he’s still out there somewhere?” Clarke asks tentatively.

Lexa sighs. “I try not to think about it. But if he’s survived all this time, then yes, he still is out there.”

Clarke waits a minute before asking “Doesn’t that terrify you? Knowing he’s still out there?”

“Yes. But there’s not much we can do. Anya tells me if he wanted to find us and hurt us he would have done so already, but I have a feeling she says that to reassure herself, too.”

“I can’t imagine…” Clarke starts, but she never finishes her sentence.

Lexa shifts so that Clarke is laying up against her chest and starts rubbing her back. Clarke immediately starts purring and cuddles in closer.

Lexa whispers in Clarke’s ear “I’m okay now, Clarke.”

Clarke shivers when she hears how Lexa pronounces her name, clicking the k at the end. They lay there for a while more in silence before Clarke speaks.

“About two years ago, when I was a freshman, I started dating this Alpha. He was-”

She is cut off by a pounding on the front door of the house. Lexa and Clarke both jump off the mattress, and Lexa positions herself in front of the Omega. She gets a whiff of the intruder’s scent and immediately relaxes. Clarke also relaxes after Lexa tells her it’s just Anya. _Of course_ Anya came home right when Clarke was about to open up to her. They both pad down the hallway and arrive just as Anya bursts through the door.

“Surprise! I got off early.” Anya says as she pulls Lexa into a hug. She notices Clarke when Lexa pulls away and the blonde Omega smiles shyly.

“You must be Clarke.”

Clarke nods and walks towards Anya with her hand extended. “And you’re Anya. It’s so nice to finally meet you. Lexa’s told me so much about you.”

Anya shakes her hand and acts exasperated. “Lexa’s told you about me, huh? Great, then I guess my reputations already ruined.”

Anya winks at Clarke, Lexa sends a harsh glare at Anya, and Clarke giggles at the girl’s antics.

“Clarke I think I should start walking you back home, it’s getting pretty late.”

“Aw but Lex I just met her! I didn’t even get the chance to get out your baby photo album” Anya pouts.

Clarke puts her hand on Anya’s shoulder and intervenes before Lexa can make a snide remark. “It’s okay Anya, I’m sure I’ll be back soon and I look forward to seeing those, but Lexa’s right, I should get home before my parents start to worry.”

Anya smirks. “You bet I’ll show you. And I hope you come back real soon cause you’re all tall and brooding over there has been talking about lately.”

Lexa’s cheeks turn red and if looks could kill, Anya would be dead ten times over by now.

Clarke smugly looks at Lexa. “That’s very flattering Woods, but you still have to walk me home.” With that Clarke walks out the front door.

Lexa is baffled, and Anya bursts out laughing because she’s never seen her sister look so dazed. “Man, I knew she’d have you whipped, I like her already!” Lexa glares at her again, but before she could say anything Clarke pokes her head in the door.

“You coming?”

“Yeah I’ll be right there” Lexa stutters out, before following Clarke out the door. She swears she hears Anya whisper “whipped” under her breath, but she can’t be sure.

\-----

They walk with their arms linked in silence again, watching the streetlamps slowly dim as it gets later and later. Neither of them know what to say, but the silence isn’t awkward or heavy, it’s comfortable. They are standing in front of the Clarke’s giant gates less than a half hour later, and Lexa can see Abby waiting on the porch when they enter.

Abby rushes over as soon as she catches sight of them. She pulls Clarke away from Lexa and pushes the Omega behind her. Abby frowns when she catches a whiff of Clarke.

"Clarke, baby, why do you have an Alpha's scent I don't recognize all over you?" Abby asks somewhat worriedly.

Clarke smiles. "I met Anya, Lexa's older sister. She's really nice, I think you'd like her."

Abby suddenly looks alarmed. "You what! Clarke, I told you you're not allowed to hang out with Alphas I haven't met!"

Clarke rolls her eyes "Relax mom, we weren't hanging out, I just met her before we left to come home."

Lexa speaks up, trying to help the situation. "She actually got off her shift early, that's why she was there. She wasn't originally supposed to be home."

Abby whirls around to face Lexa and snarls. "I think you should go."

Lexa looks back at Clarke and sees her looking on with an apologetic look. She turns to leave when she hears gunshots go off not far from Clarke's house. The sound doesn't faze Lexa, because she hears them all the time in Walden, but both Clarke and Abby shriek in surprise and cover their ears. More shots ring out, and Lexa rushes over to Clarke and Abby and quickly tells them to go inside. Before they can get up the porch stairs, the gate bursts open and Jake Griffin stumbles through, looking rattled and out of breath.

Lexa rushes over to him and takes his briefcase, because the poor man looks like he’s about to collapse. “Jake, what’s going on?” Lexa asks frantically.

“There’s a man” Jake rasps out, “He has a gun and just starting shooting people randomly. He looks like he’s from Walden, and he’s getting closer to our neighborhood." As if to prove his point, multiple more shots are fired, and they sound a lot closer than they did.

Jake sees Clarke and Abby and runs towards them, pulling them into a hug when he reaches them. Lexa follows behind.

“Are you both okay?”

“Yes we are, but we should really get inside and lock up the house.”

Jake nods and pulls his family towards the door, before turning back to Lexa. "Come on kiddo, you too."

Lexa shakes her head. "Thank you, but I should really get back to Any-"

"Lexa, I'm not letting you go back out there alone, it isn't safe. You'll just have to stay with us tonight."

"But Anya won't know where I am, she'll be worried."

"I think she'll figure out where you are. I'm sure she would rather you stay over here then risk trying to get home with an armed gunman running around."

She wanted to argue that she did that everyday, since almost everyone in Walden owned a gun. But she bit her tongue and follows them to the house. Abby looks less then pleased, and Clarke looks excited. As soon as the door is locked behind them and the alarms are turned on, Jake claps his hands together and turns around with his signature goofy grin on his face. "Well, what do y'all want to do tonight?"


	7. Cuddles and Clarke's Backstory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning/Disclaimer: THERE IS NO RAPE IN THIS STORY, BUT THERE IS MENTIONS OF IT IN THIS CHAPTER. If it will be too triggering for you to read, just shoot me a message and I'll give you a detailed summary of the chapter minus that part :)
> 
> Lexa watches a movie and eats popcorn with Clarke, she learns shocking news about the ark, Jake gives her 'the talk' (sort of), and Clarke opens up about her past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm slowly getting my life together, so hopefully updates will be made more frequently. Just a question, would you guys rather have shorter chapters with more frequent updates, or longer chapters but a longer waiting period for updates? I'm just curious.  
> I have to say that this has been my favorite chapter to write so far. A bunch of fluffy Clexa moments and really important parts of the plot are introduced in this chapter, so I hope you guys enjoy it :)

Lexa stands awkwardly in the foyer looking at Jake, while Abby and Clarke roll their eyes. “Well I suppose we should eat dinner, considering it’s pretty late.”

Lexa’s stomach growls and she finds herself subconsciously nodding at Abby’s idea. Jake rolls his sleeves up to his forearms. “Why don’t you girls go wash up and me and the Mrs. will whip up something real fast for dinner, alright?”

Clarke nods and leads Lexa down a long hallway to a bathroom. They silently wash their hands side by side, and while Lexa is drying her hands with the towel Clarke gets impatient and flicks water all over Lexa. The Alpha gasps and tries to act offended, and washes her hands again so she can get Clarke back. The Omega runs out of the bathroom laughing, and Lexa chases her down the hallway before catching her by the waist. Lexa tickles Clarke until she begs for her to stop. They only break apart when they hear a loud “Ahem” come from behind them. Abby and Jake are both standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Abby has her hands on her hips and has an unamused look on her face. Jake is smiling at them softly.

Abby’s eyes narrow. “Dinner’s ready. We’re just having leftovers.”

Lexa gulps. “Yes ma’am.”

Lexa isn’t sure why Abby is looking at her so angrily. The older Alpha had seemed to like Lexa when she was invited over for dinner. She can’t think of anything she’s done that could’ve aggravated Abby enough to be angry with her.

All four of them make their way into the kitchen, and Lexa sees the kitchen table set with all different kinds of leftover foods. Her stomach growls again, louder this time, and Clarke snickers at Lexa and pokes her in the belly.

They all sit down at the table and dig in. Lexa piles everything onto her plate, eager to try each dish. She looks over at Clarke’s plate and sees the younger Omega has only grabbed a handful of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.

“Seriously, Clarke? Out of all the food on the table you’re only eating chicken nuggets?”

Clarke just shrugs her shoulders and continues to nibble on her chicken.

When Clarke doesn’t verbally answer Jake speaks up “Clarke’s always been a picky eater, ever since she was a pup. To this day she still basically lives off of chicken, mac and cheese, cereal, and popcorn.”

Lexa looks at Clarke in disbelief. If Lexa was as picky as Clarke, she’d never eat at all. Food was hard to come by in Walden and Lexa was always taught to be grateful with what you got. Seeing someone that got to be picky and choose what they want to eat all the time was mind boggling for Lexa.

“I haven’t heard any more shots”, Clarke offers hopefully, “Maybe the guy was arrested.”

“I hope he has been. There are hardly ever any shootings in Arcadia, but when there is, it’s never good. A lot of people end up getting killed.”

‘No kidding’ Lexa thinks to herself. It’s the same with all the shootings in Walden, but since none of the people there are rich or important, it’s not a big deal. Lexa angrily grips her fork so hard her knuckles turn white. If Abby had said anything else about the topic, Lexa might have exploded and gone on a long, angry rant but luckily Jake changes the subject. Clarke notices Lexa’s distress and stealthily slips one hand under the table and starts massaging the Alpha’s muscular thigh.

Lexa relaxes at the touch and smiles gratefully at Clarke. Clarke smiles back and stuffs another nugget in her mouth.

The rest of dinner is spent talking about Jake’s day at work, and Lexa learns he is a mechanical engineer for the Ark. She’s fascinated and asks him a bunch of questions, while Clarke rolls her eyes at how nerdy they both sound. Clarke does find it endearing though, that Lexa Woods, a badass Alpha who saved her from getting knocked out by a dodgeball, is actually a huge dork.

Lexa and Jake talking about his job reminds Clarke of the favor Raven had asked her at school a couple days ago.

“Hey dad, would it be okay if Raven shadowed you at work sometime? She really wants to get as much experience as possible before she applies to some internship she wants to start when school finishes.”

Jake smiles wholeheartedly at the question. “I’ve been wondering when she’d ask me. Or when she’d ask you to ask me for her”, Jake says with a frown, “But I’d love to have her. As long as she promises not to blow anything up.”

Clarke laughs, “Don’t worry, I’ve already warned her.”

“Good.”

The table goes quiet after that, and the only noise that fills the air is clinking silverware and muffled chewing. They all finish their food relatively quickly, anxious to get away from the awkward silence that fills the air.

Jake clears his plate first. “Abby and I are going to go discuss some financial stuff upstairs, so you girls can watch a movie or something down here for a while, okay?” His tone is friendly enough, but Lexa catches the underlying message ‘don’t bother us’ clearly.

Abby doesn’t look particularly enthused at the idea of leaving them alone together, but doesn’t interject while she busies herself with clearing the table.

The two adults finish the dishes as Clarke shows Lexa how to make popcorn, and Clarke nearly seizes when Lexa tells her she’s never had popcorn before.

“Never? Not even when you were little?”

Lexa just purses her lips and shakes her head.

“Well, that’s about to change, and you’re lucky, too, because I make the _best_ popcorn.

“You’re so humble” Lexa mutters, and Jake hears her from the sink and laughs.

The popcorn finishes and they head inside to the den while Jake and Abby head upstairs to have their ‘financial talk’. They sit down on the couch with the ridiculously large bowl of popcorn in between them.

“So” Clarke starts, “what movie do you want to watch?”

Lexa shifts nervously. “It doesn’t matter to me, whatever you want to watch is fine.” Lexa doesn’t want to tell Clarke she’s only seen four movies in her entire life; she was already embarrassed enough to admit she’d never had popcorn.

“No, come on, you’re the guest so you should get to choose. Though I will say, the best movies, in my opinion, are stashed on the top shelf of the rack by the T.V.”

Lexa makes her way over to it and browses through the vast collection of movies. She doesn’t recognize any of them, so she picks one with four girls wearing revealing skirts on the cover called ‘Mean Girls’. She doesn’t even read what the movie is about, since the girls on the front of it make the movie seem interesting enough to her. She’s a horny teenage Alpha, what can she say.

Clarke raises her eyebrow at Lexa’s pick, but only says “Good choice” as she puts the movie in the DVD player. They settle back into the couch as the movie starts, and Clarke watches with wide eyes as Lexa tries her first handful of popcorn. She pretends to chew with a thoughtful look on her face, as if she were a judge on a well-known cooking show, and she thinks Clarke’s eyes will bulge out of her head if they get any wider.

“Not bad” Lexa finally says “a bit salty, but overall pretty good.”

Clarke seems satisfied with the answer, but quickly shushes Lexa when she claims that ‘this is her favorite part of the movie.’ Lexa quickly learns that Clarke is a big fat liar because she basically says every scene is her favorite. Lexa finds it endearing though, along with the way Clarke inhales the popcorn and has it finished within the first twenty minutes of the movie. Lexa reaches into the bowl to grab another handful, but sees the popcorn is long gone, and stares at Clarke in disbelief.

She’s impressed with Clarke’s large appetite, and offers to go make some more. Clarke shrugs her shoulders at the question and Lexa knows she didn’t hear a word she just said. Lexa’s beyond full so she doesn’t make another bag; but she does bring the bowl to the kitchen so that nothing will be in between her and Clarke on the couch.

When Lexa returns to the couch she nonchalantly sits a little closer to Clarke, and misses the way Clarke’s lips turn up in a small smile. Lexa tries to focus on the movie, she really does, but not even Regina George can pull Lexa’s attention away from Clarke.

If Clarke could feel Lexa staring at her, she doesn’t acknowledge it. She just watches the movie, laughing hysterically at all the funny parts. When the movie finishes, Clarke turns to Lexa.

“Did you like it?”

Lexa scratches the back of her head and frowns. “Like what?”

Clarke rolls her eyes. “The movie. Did you like the movie?”

Shit. The movie. What was it called again? Dirty Girls? Mean Females? Mean Girls? The last one sounds right, so that’s what Lexa goes with.

“I liked it. It was funny” Lexa laughs shyly, “Mean Girls is really something.”

Lexa fiddles with her thumbs, a habit she has when she’s nervous. She’s not usually this tense and jumpy around Clarke, quite the opposite actually, and she assumes her nerves are from the gunman currently on the loose.

Lexa hears shuffling on the couch and sees Clarke slowly sliding toward her hesitantly. Lexa doesn’t move or say anything, just lets Clarke gravitate closer at her own pace. At last she is sitting right next to Lexa, so close their thighs are touching, and the Omega gently leans her head on Lexa’s shoulder. The Alpha’s body is stiff as a board, but after a few minutes she relaxes and sinks back into the couch. She tentatively lifts her arm and wraps it around Clarke’s shoulders, pulling her against the warmth of her body.

They sit in comfortable silence for a long time, just content to be close to each other. Clarke breaks the silence first.

“I think the pheromone training is working.”

Lexa picks her head up from the cushions. “Really? What makes you say that?”

Clarke doesn’t meet Lexa’s eye; instead she absentmindedly plays with the frayed end of Lexa’s shirt. “When I got home today and my mom rushed to greet me, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the strong pheromones she was pumping out like I used to be. I didn’t feel the need to submit at all.”

Lexa smiles down at Clarke, happy that she could help her achieve what would be considered an amazing feat for an Omega.

“Well now that you think you can resist submitting to your mother’s pheromones,” Clarke looks up at Lexa then, and she almost forgets her train of thought as she stares into Clarke’s crystal blue eyes, “I think we should stop for a while. At least until we find a better place to practice.”

Clarke laughs. “It wasn’t that bad.”

Lexa looks at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Not that bad? Do I need to remind you the number of times we were almost caught?” Lexa gulps, “especially the last time?”

Clarke shrugs her shoulders with a smirk, but Lexa’s already too far gone in the memory to notice.

_Flashback_

_Lexa was in Clarke’s room, towering over the blonde Omega, unleashing some of her strongest pheromones on the girl. This was the fifth time they had practiced together, and she was impressed with how far Clarke had come. Since the activity took great efforts from both girls, they were sweaty, breathing hard, and covered in each other’s pheromones. “What did you tell your parents we were doing?” Lexa gasps out, hands on her knees while trying to regulate her breathing._

_“Working on a project.”_

_Lexa just nods, unsure how to reply._

_Just when Clarke was about to say she was going to take a quick shower, they hear footsteps coming from down the hall. Lexa looks over at Clarke with a panicked look on her face, but Clarke seemed oddly calm about the situation._

_“Clarke I think that’s your mom.”_

_Clarke looks pointedly at her. “Yeah, so? She’s probably just coming to check on us.”_

_“Clarke”, Lexa stutters out, “the way we look and smell, she’s going to think we….”_

_Clarke, oblivious as ever, didn’t understand what Lexa was trying to say._

_Lexa sighed. “She’s going to think we were…. you know….doing stuff that she probably wouldn’t want us to be doing.” Lexa winces when she gets a better look at Clarke’s appearance, which basically screams sex, and hurries to straighten out her own clothes._

_Clarke’s eyes suddenly widen in understanding, and she looks alarmingly from Lexa to the door, which Abby will entering any minute now. But Clarke has the last reaction Lexa would expect._

_She burst out laughing._

_“Clarke!” Lexa forcefully says, really panicking now because the footsteps sound very close. Clarke’s laughing so hard her shoulders are shaking, and Lexa knows she has to act now or they’ll get caught and won’t ever be allowed to work on a ‘project’ again._

_She moves quickly across the room and is standing in front of Clarke in less than two seconds. She grabs her by the elbow and gently pushes her into the bathroom, making sure to close the door so that hopefully it will stifle Clarke’s laughter. Lexa just has enough time to wipe her face with her shirt and to roll onto her stomach and pretend she’s studying before Abby whips Clarke’s bedroom door open without knocking._

_Lexa looks up innocently from her textbook and smiles at Abby. Abby looks around the room suspiciously and sniffs the air. “Where’s Clarke?”_

_Lexa tries to look as casual as possible. “She’s in the bathroom.”_

_Abby sticks around for just a moment longer while Lexa tries to focus on looking like she’s studying. Beads of sweat gather on her forehead, but she makes no move to wipe them away._

_When Abby finally leaves, Lexa lets out a deep breath and closes Clarke’s bedroom door. The bathroom door opens slightly and Clarke pokes her head out. “Did she leave?”_

_“Yes she left. You know how much trouble I would have been in if she…” Lexa stopped her rant when she looked up at Clarke. The Omega’s blonde hair was messily splayed over her shoulders, her face was flushed and red, and she was smiling her biggest toothy grin, and Lexa thought she’s never looked more beautiful. The Alpha didn’t have it in her to be mad at Clarke, and she never would._

_End Flashback_

“Earth to Lexa, hello? You’re overthinking, soon steam’s going to start coming out of your ears.”

Clarke’s voice brings Lexa out of the memory, and it takes a minute for the Alpha to process what Clarke had just said. Lexa scoffs. “I was not overthinking, I was just…. overremembering.”

“Mmhh” Clarke mumbles into her shoulder.

Lexa notices how Clarke is practically falling asleep on her, and nudges her a bit. “Clarke, we should probably go to bed. It’s already past ten o’clock, and we have school tomorrow.”

Clarke groans “Don’t wanna move.”

“Come on” Lexa coaxes gently “your bed will be way comfier, I promise.”

But Clarke won’t budge, and every time Lexa tries to move her she growls softly in distress, making Lexa abandon her efforts. So Lexa sits there for some time with Clarke snuggled into her side, trying to think of a good way to get Clarke up to her room.

“What if I give you a piggy back ride up to your room?”

Clarke’s eye cracks open slightly and her lips form a smug smile. “Well if you’re offering, I would love a piggy back ride.”

This time when Lexa disentangles herself from Clarke, she doesn’t growl or make a move to stop her. Lexa stands and looks at Clarke expectantly, but the Omega doesn’t make any effort to get up.

“Clarke, you know you have to stand for me to pick you up, right?”

Clarke groans again but slowly stands, and Lexa steadies her when seeing how unbalanced she is. Lexa lets go of Clarke to turn around and get on her knees, making it as easy as possible for Clarke to get on her back. The blonde climbs on her back and wraps her legs around the Alpha’s lean waist. Lexa effortlessly stands up and adjusts Clarke to make sure she won’t fall before heading to the stairs.

She goes slowly, careful not to jostle her too much, and stops in front of Clarke’s room to open the door. Once inside, Lexa leans her back over the bed and Clarke releases her leg from around Lexa’s waist and plops down against the silky comforter.

Lexa stands awkwardly next to her bed, unsure of what to do or where to sleep. Clarke sleepily opens her eyes when she hears Lexa shuffling her feet and mumbles out “You can sleep on the couch downstairs. If it was my decision, you could sleep in here with me, but unfortunately my mom would spontaneously combust before she'd let that happen.” Lexa chuckles and hesitantly makes her way towards the door.

“Oh and Lexa?"

Lexa stops and turns around to face Clarke.

“You can ask my parents to show you where the extra pillows and blankets are. They’ll get some for you.”

“Clarke, could you tell me where they are? Your parents are having that talk and I don’t think they want to be interrupted.” But Clarke is already fast asleep and snoring, and Lexa sighs before exiting the bedroom.

\-----

Lexa tiptoes down a long hallway she’s never been through before, and shortens her steps when she hears voices coming from a room at the very end of the hall. It is completely dark other than the light shining through the doorway. Lexa keeps going until she is right outside the door, with her back against the wall and her ears straining to listen. Jake and Abby sound like they’re arguing, if their raised voices are anything to go by.

She’s about to scoot just a little closer to the door frame when Jake’s loud and frustrated voice stops her in her tracks “…..The ark is dying, Abby. And it’s not just a simple fix this time.”

Lexa’s mouth drops open, and her body becomes paralyzed because she is in complete and utter shock. _The ark is dying? How is that possible?_ Lexa cannot even begin to formulate an answer, so she focuses her attention back on the conversation she’s not supposed to be listening to.

Lexa hears Abby’s hushed voice “How much time do we have?”

There’s a long pause before Jake softly says “Six months at the most. When the oxygen system starts failing completely, the council will shut off the oxygen in Walden first.” Jake’s voice cracks in the end, and Lexa feels like she’s asphyxiating.

“That’s a shame, Clarke really likes Lexa. She’ll be devastated.”

Jake tentatively starts “We could always hide her and her sister here, no one would-”

“No Jake” Abby cuts in harshly, “you know that’s against the rules. You would get floated.”

“But Abby” Jake pleads, “she’s such a good kid. And you’re right, Clarke would be devastated. We can’t just let her die.”

This is all too much for Lexa to handle. She stumbles backwards, trying to get away quietly, but accidently stumbles over her feet and skids a few inches across the floor. Lexa curses, because she’s sure Jake and Abby heard, and she’s proven right when Jake peeks out the door less than a minute later.

Lexa forces a smile. “Hey Jake.”

“Hey kiddo. You need something?”

Lexa’s relieved he doesn’t sound mad. “Yeah, can you just show me where the pillows and blankets are? Clarke wasn’t very helpful with telling me.” Lexa awkwardly rubs at the back of her neck, not knowing what else to say.

“Yeah of course kiddo! Let me guess: Clarke fell asleep before she could tell you.”

Jake laughs at Lexa’s confirming nod, but the Alpha is still too shaken up to give anything more than an uneasy smile. He leads her downstairs to a small door next to the bathroom and opens it to reveal a bunch of towels, blankets, and pillows.

“You can take however many you want, no need to be frugal here. Clarke has like eight pillows on her bed.” Lexa knows it was meant as a joke, but can’t find it in herself to laugh. She’s in a state of shock from all the information she just heard, and she’s _so_ tired.

Much to her surprise though, Jake and her don’t part ways at the stairs, but instead he follows her into the den. She sets down her stash of blankets and pillows at the end of the couch, and plops down next to where Jake is sitting. They sit in silence for a while, and Lexa notices how Jake is lost in thought, trapped inside his own mind.

“How did you really get your black eye?” Jake tentatively asks, “Because Clarke told me you got into a fight, but that bruise around your eye definitely did not come from somebody’s fist.”

Lexa clenches her jaw, and contemplates on whether or not she should tell the truth. She decides to just come clean, since Jake had already seen past her first attempt at covering up what really happened.

“I did get into a fight” Jake looks at her expectantly, “But it was with a dodgeball.” And so Lexa tells him the whole story, from when Murphy threw a football at her in the school parking lot, all the way up to right after she got hit with the dodgeball. After she finishes she takes a deep breath and sinks back more comfortably into the cushions.

Jake takes a moment to digest everything.

“It was Clarke wasn’t it? The person you jumped in front of, to save from being hit by the dodgeball?

Lexa doesn’t say anything, just nods.

“Abby did the same thing for me when we were in high school. Except in my case it was a baseball the Alphas were throwing at me. There aren’t many guy Omegas on the ark, and the Alphas always made fun of me because they thought I was small and weak. But not Abby. _Never_ Abby. She stood up for me, and when I found the courage to actually talk to her, we became really close.” Jake pauses, as if trying to remember his train of thought.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, you remind me a lot of Abby.”

At this Lexa instantly balked. Out of all the people she would want to be compared to, Abby Griffin is not one of them.

Jake notices her silent outrage and tries to calm her down. “I know you and Abby aren’t on the best of terms, but being compared to her is not a bad thing, believe me. She is very protective of Clarke, but my parents were the same way when Abby and I started hanging out in high school.”

“The point of all this is, that because I see so much of Abby’s traits and characteristics in you, I trust you completely with Clarke. I know you’ll protect her like Alphas are supposed to and not take advantage of her, and that’s all I want for her.”

Lexa understands. She stands up with Jake, shakes his hand, and they bid each other goodnight. It takes Lexa a long time to fall asleep.

\-----

Lexa is awoken out of her slumber by a persistent weight tapping against her legs. At first she thinks the ceiling is collapsing and panics, so she quickly jumps off the couch and nearly knocks over a surprised Clarke in the process.

When Lexa finally gets her harsh breathing under control, she shoots Clarke a soft glare, but it wavers when she sees how hard Clarke is laughing.

“You.. jumped off the couch… you were so scared…” Clarke manages to get out in between hiccups and laughter. Lexa sits down on the couch next to Clarke with a pout on her face.

“That was mean” Lexa says after Clarke finally stops laughing.

“I was just trying to wake you up, I didn’t know you would go into badass ninja mode just from me nudging your leg.”

“So you think I’m badass?” Lexa asks with a smirk.

Clarke rolls her eyes. “Of course that’s the only thing you picked up from what I just said.”

“Just answer the question, Clarke.” Lexa clicks the k at the end of her name, and it makes Clarke noticeably shiver.

“Maybe sometimes” Clarke answers in a low, squeaky voice, overwhelmed by the way Lexa is looking at her.

“Only sometimes, Clarke?” Again she clicks the k, and again Clarke shivers.

Clarke pouts in frustration. “That’s not fair, there aren’t any consonants I can click in your name.”

“That’s too bad, Clarke.”

Clarke punches her in the shoulder, but is grinning when Lexa shoots her an offended look. “Seriously, stop it.”

Clarke becomes shy under Lexa’s hungry, almost predatory gaze, and her heart nearly stops when the Alpha slowly licks her lips. It’s making Clarke nervous, and she doesn’t know what to do to get her to stop. Lexa scoots closer to Clarke, eyes nearly black, and it is only when Clarke whimpers and tries to move away from her that Lexa realizes she’s scaring the girl.

Lexa moves back immediately and her eye color changes from dark coal back to their normal emerald green color. “I’m so sorry, Clarke, I don’t know what got into me. I didn’t mean to frighten you. It’s just, I think I’m close to my rut cycle and I’m pretty sure I’m still half asleep, and you just look really pretty-” Clarke cuts her off by putting a finger to her lips.

“Lexa, honestly, it’s okay.”

Lexa hangs her head low in shame. “No it’s not. I made you uncomfortable.”

“You did” Clarke’s words makes Lexa tilt her head even lower. “But you realized and you stopped. That’s all I could ever ask for in a partner.”

Lexa quickly lifts her head up and meets Clarke’s eyes. “A partner?” she asks timidly.

Clarke’s eyes soften and she scoots over until she’s sitting cross-legged in front of Lexa. “Yes, Lexa, a partner.” Lexa can’t breathe, because what she’s hearing is too good to be true. “I like you, Lexa. I thought it was obvious.” Clarke won’t meet her eyes, and Lexa realizes it’s because she’s afraid of rejection. But how could she ever reject her? Lexa’s in just as deep, if not deeper, with Clarke as the Omega is with her.

“Clarke” Lexa whispers, not wanting to speak any louder in fear her voice would give out. She moves closer to Clarke slowly, and reaches her hand out. When the blonde doesn’t flinch, she gently cups her cheek and pulls her into a tender embrace. Lexa plants soft kisses to Clarke’s forehead and temple, worshiping all the smooth skin she can reach.

All too soon Clarke pulls away, and Lexa whines and holds Clarke closer to her. Clarke puts her hands on Lexa’s chest and lightly pushes. “Lexa, please, I want to tell you something important.”

Lexa reluctantly loosens her grip around the Omega’s waist. Clarke only moves back a little, so that their faces are still only centimeters apart. Clarke wraps her small, pale hand around Lexa’s and squeezes, trying to find the courage to tell the Alpha what she was about to explain at Lexa’s house before Anya came home and interrupted them.

“I’m going to tell you something I’ve only ever told a few people. It’s the reason why my mom is so protective of me, and why I sometimes get really jumpy around a bunch of Alphas I don’t know.”

Lexa listens attentively, eyes wide, and nods when Clarke finishes. The blonde sighs adoringly at how cute Lexa looks, with her lips parted and hair disheveled, hanging off of every word Clarke is saying.

Clarke starts off exactly the way she did at Lexa’s house, except this time Anya isn’t here to barge in and halt their conversation. “About two years ago, when I was a freshman, I started dating this Alpha. He was nice, friendly, charming.” Clarke takes a moment to gather her thoughts, and Lexa strokes her thumb over Clarke’s hand in a soothing manner. “He treated me good, took me out on dates, and we had a lot of fun most of the time we were together.” It wasn’t lost on Lexa how she said ‘ _most_ of the time.’

“After about six months, he began to change. He became distant, and disconnected, like he wanted nothing to do with anyone anymore, especially me.” Lexa growls softly, and if Clarke notices, she doesn’t say anything. How could anyone ever make Clarke feel unwanted? Lexa wants her so badly, not just in a sexual way, but to be able reassure her, and hold her, and shower her with love and appreciation, and treat her the way an Omega deserves to be treated.

“I tried to be patient with him, but it was like he was just a different person. Hanging out with the wrong crowd, and going out to parties until he was so drunk he couldn’t even remember his name. His friends encouraged him to take what he wanted from me, so he started touching me in ways I wasn’t comfortable with.” Lexa was growling constantly now, but it was low enough that it didn’t deter Clarke from telling her story.

“Consent didn’t matter to him anymore. It escalated until he was determined to go all the way with me, even though I pleaded with him not to. He made me skip class one day and lead me beneath the bleachers of the football stadium.”

Lexa finds her voice. “Did he?” she manages to choke out.

Clarke shakes her head. “No. Luckily, Wells noticed my distress at the end of class before he took me, and followed us to the bleachers. He stopped him before he could do it.”

Lexa is visibly shaking from the rage she is desperately trying to hold inside her, and Clarke is shaking from having to relieve one of the most traumatic experiences of her life.

When Lexa speaks, her voice is dangerously low. “This Alpha. Who is he?”

Clarke meets Lexa’s eyes with a timid look on her face. “His name is Finn.”

At this Lexa completely loses it. She lets out an enraged roar that has Clarke’s hand tightening around hers in a painful grip.

“Lex-a please…”

One look at the Omega and she immediately calms herself down. Tears are silently streaming down Clarke’s face, and she is deathly pale and shaking violently with one arm wrapped around her body.

“Clarke” Lexa coos softly, “Come here, it’s okay.” Lexa opens her arms, and Clarke crawls toward her slowly. When the Omega is finally wrapped in her embrace, Lexa leans back against the cushions so that Clarke is resting comfortably on her chest. It takes a while for Clarke to calm down and recover, but Lexa is there the whole time, soothingly rubbing her back and whispering reassuring words in her ear.

Clarke tucks her face into the heat of Lexa’s neck, trying to breathe in as much of the Alpha’s comforting scent as she can. Lexa wraps her arms protectively around the vulnerable Omega, and Clarke sighs in relief against her chest.

Eventually, Clarke picks her head up off Lexa’s chest and smiles lazily down at her. Lexa stops breathing, and all her feelings for Clarke come rushing in all at once. Green eyes meet blue eyes, and before Lexa knows what she’s doing her lips meet Clarkes and they’re kissing like they’ve done this all their life.

Lexa holds Clarke’s waist and the blonde wraps her arms around Lexa's neck. The kiss starts slowly at first, both getting a feel for each other. Lexa marvels at how soft Clarke’s lips are and gently sucks at them, making Clarke whine.

It gets heated very quickly, and right before Lexa’s about to pull back Clarke shifts against her nether region, and Lexa lets out a loud moan. She can feel her cock extending and forming a bulge in her pants, and she looks up at Clarke with a worried expression. The Omega does seem shocked and a little nervous, but not as panicked as she was after talking about Finn.

“Clarke, it’s okay, we’re stopping.” She runs her hand up and down Clarke’s arm softly, and the innocent touch brings Clarke back to reality. Clarke nods and gingerly lays back on top of Lexa. Not mentioning the uncomfortable hardness Lexa is sporting.

“I’m sorry about that” Lexa says awkwardly, pointing to her little ‘problem’, “I guess that’s just what happens when I kiss a beautiful girl, but it should go away on its own.”

Clarke blushes and chuckles, and Lexa grins at her before planting a small kiss on her nose. But then the Alpha turns serious. “Clarke” Lexa asks tentatively, “You know I would never do what Finn tried to do to you, right? I would never do anything to you without your consent.”

Clarke reluctantly removes her face from the warmth of Lexa’s neck before nodding and yawning. “Yes, I know that Lexa. When we first met and you knocked me over, you could have been rude and blamed it on me, but you didn’t. You could have took me and knotted me while I was in heat in the alley, but you didn’t. And when I was scared earlier, you actually cared enough to stop and make sure I was okay.”

Lexa is almost in tears at how happy she is, and so is Clarke.

“I care so much about you, Clarke.”

And when Clarke gives her that toothy, sleepy smile that Lexa adores so much, she feels so happy she could burst. Lexa starts purring, and she runs her fingers through Clarke’s silky blonde hair and massages her scalp, making Clarke purr and shift closer. Lexa can feel her Omega falling asleep against her, and she nudges her shoulder gently to get her attention.

Clarke cracks an eye open but doesn’t say anything. “Clarke I hate to say this, but you should go back up to your bed.”

“No.”

“Clarke please, if your parents find us like this, especially your mother-”

“They won’t, I promise. Please just keep holding me.”

Lexa sighs and wraps her arms tighter around her Omega whose snuggled into to her so cozily, and her heart bursts with affection. Lexa’s never felt more at home.

\-----

Lexa slowly wakes with an unfamiliar weight on her stomach. When she opens her eyes the first thing she sees is blonde hair splayed out over her chest. She sees Clarke’s small hands gripping her t-shirt, and her face looks peaceful and at ease.

The clock on the wall says 6:30, and Lexa knows Clarke’s parents will be awake and coming downstairs soon. She hates to wake Clarke up, but she knows it’s a better option than Abby catching them.

“Clarke wake up” Lexa shakes her shoulders. Nothing. She shakes them a little harder this time, but still nothing. Lexa tries everything to wake Clarke up without being rude, and soon she’s run out of ideas. Clarke is a freaking heavy sleeper.

Lexa gets one last idea and attempts it quickly when she hears footsteps and voices upstairs. She peppers Clarke with tiny flurries of kisses all over her face, and soon the Omega is awake and giggling under the assault. Lexa places a wet, sloppy kiss on her cheek, and Clarke shrieks and squirms to get away.

But soon Clarke settles against her chest again after Lexa stops her assault by planting one last peck on her lips. “Good morning.” Lexa says giddily.

“Good morning indeed.”

They lay there for a while, sharing sleepy remarks and languid kisses before the sounds of Jake and Abby gets closer above them. “I wish I could stay like this with you all morning, but unfortunately I have to go home and get ready for school.”

Clarke groans but doesn’t argue. They get up and share a few hugs and kisses before Clarke backs away from her and heads to the kitchen. “You’ll stop by my locker this morning?” Clarke asks expectantly.

Lexa gives her one of her rare, full smiles. “You bet I will.”

Lexa leaves the Griffin’s house feeling lighter than air.

\-----

Lexa is surprised that Anya doesn’t tackle her at the doorway when she gets home. She thought her sister would be anxiously awaiting her arrival, but other than the motorcycle that’s parked out on the side of the street, she doesn’t even seem to be home.

Lexa sees her when she’s walking through the den to her room. She’s sitting rigid on the couch, unfocused and her breathing uneven. She also looks really pale, like she just saw a ghost or some sort of apparition.

“Anya?” Lexa calls out softly.

No response. It’s not until Lexa is right in front of her that she snaps out of whatever trance she was in. Anya shudders and lets out a deep breath, while Lexa looks at her worriedly.

“Was it another nightmare again?”

After their mom was killed, it was common for Anya and Lexa to get recurring nightmares that scared them enough to not be able to sleep properly. Now that they were older they happened less and less, but every now and then one would come back to haunt them.

Anya sighs and stands up unsteadily. Lexa hurries to help her but her sister waves her away. “No, it wasn’t a nightmare. Just don’t worry about it, okay?”

Lexa wants to argue with her, but she knows it would be pointless. Lexa and Anya are very much alike, and won’t tell each other anything until they’re ready. Anya passes Lexa without a word and heads to her room. She doesn’t even seem to know about the gunman that was on the loose in Arcadia last night.

Something happened to her sister while she was gone last night, and Lexa’s determined to find out what it was.


	8. Alphas vs. Alpha and Omega

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa has some suitors, Clexa have a moment, Raven and Lexa are protective best friends, and Lexa kicks Murphy's, Finn's, and Quint's asses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks guys for your patience. This will probably be the last long chapter I'll write for a while, so the next chapter should be up shortly. I also made a tumblr @bakerbaker7, so if you want to yell at me to update faster you can do it there lol. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Today is Lexa’s big day. Even though it’s Tuesday morning, Lexa jumps out of bed right when her alarm goes off. She makes sure she has her lucky fuzzy socks on before sliding down the hallway to the kitchen, nearly knocking a picture off the wall in the process. She finds Anya sitting at the table sipping her coffee and bounds over to her like an excited puppy.

“Anya guess what day it is!”

“Wait. Don’t tell me…… It’s Tuesday.”

Lexa huffs and sits down across from her grouchy older sister. “That’s not what I meant Anya.”

“Oh right, my apologies. Let me try again. Hmmm, let’s see. Oh now I remember. It’s tryout day!”

Lexa nods her head enthusiastically. “You bet it is. I’ve been practicing my ass off for this, so why do I still feel so jumpy and nervous?”

“Everyone gets nervous before tryouts Lex, its natural. And being jumpy’s good, it’ll help you grab those rebounds.”

“Yeah I suppose.”

Lexa pours herself a bowl of cereal, and watches Anya closely. Her sister hasn’t been herself since Lexa came back from spending the night at Clarke’s house, and she’s been unable to figure out what happened to her. Anya tries to act normal and crack jokes, but Lexa sees right through her protective mask.

But unfortunately finding out what’s wrong with Anya will have to wait, because if she lingers any more she’ll be late for school. She grabs the keys to the motorcycle, since Anya called in sick to work today, and kisses the top of her sister’s head before leaving the house.

There’s hardly any traffic, so Lexa makes it to school in good time. She heads up the thirteen polished marble stairs and starts her trek to Clarke’s locker. Ever since that night at the Griffins house, Lexa’s been just an overall happier person. Clarke makes her happy. At Clarke’s request, Bellamy sits across from the blonde now instead of next to her so Lexa can sit beside her during lunch. Lexa has dinner at the Griffins almost every night now, and Abby always has a place set for her at the table when she and Clarke arrive.

Because of these dinners, Lexa’s slowly but surely gaining some weight on her dangerously thin frame. Before starting at Arcadia High she had only eaten what she and Anya could scavenge around Walden, but most of the time it wasn’t enough. Lexa finally knows what it feels like to be completely satisfied after eating a meal. She eats almost twice as much as Clarke does for dinner, and that’s saying a lot because Clarke can _eat_.

When Lexa finally gets to Clarke’s locker, she’s surprised (and a little disappointed) to see Raven standing there instead of Clarke. The brown-haired Omega is totally immersed in her phone, so Lexa decides to sneak up on her. Right when she’s about to jump out and scare the shit out of her Raven nonchalantly says “Lexa, don’t even think about it.”

The Alpha frowns. “How’d you know it was me?

Raven turns around and stares pointedly at her. “Well for starters, you’re not as stealthy as you were when you first got here. You basically sounded like a herd of buffalo coming up behind me just now, no offense.”

Lexa looks very offended, but Raven pretends not to notice and continues.

“….And secondly I could smell your cologne from about a mile away. Are you trying to make Clarke cough to death whenever she comes within ten feet of you?”

Lexa sniffs herself self-consciously. “Shit, did I spray too much on?”

Raven laughs. “Yeah. That’s probably the understatement of the day.”

Lexa doesn’t meet Raven’s eyes and has an ashamed look on her face. “I’ve never had cologne before. I asked my sister Anya to get it for me so I could smell nice for Clarke, but now I smell _too_ nice.”

Lexa turns away, dejected, and pushes past Raven to begin walking to her own locker. Even with Lexa’s slow pace, Raven struggles to keep up with the Alpha’s long strides and winces when she puts too much weight on her bad leg. “Hey wait, slow down. Don’t you want to know where Clarke is?” Raven asks frantically, knowing that mentioning Clarke will get Lexa to slow down and listen to her. What Raven doesn’t expect is for Lexa to completely stop in her tracks, causing the Omega to slam right into her.

“Geez, can’t you warn a girl first before you just stop right in the middle of the hallway? And why the hell is your back so freaking hard, are you wearing a bullet-proof vest or something?” Raven starts poking The Alpha’s body curiously, and Lexa swats her hands away until she finally stops. She doesn’t like anyone touching her, except for Clarke and occasionally Anya.

“I’m not wearing a vest Raven, calm down!”

Raven puts her hands up in surrender. “Okay fine, I’ll stop.”

Lexa taps her foot and folds her arms, looking at Raven expectantly. Then the Omega remembers what she told Lexa. “Oh yeah, you want to know where Clarke is, that’s right. She’s working on a last minute art assignment, so she asked me to tell you she can’t meet you this morning and that she’ll see you at lunch.”

Lexa nods and a dreamy smile makes its way onto her face. Raven’s seen this look on Lexa a million times before, and they’re all from when Lexa’s looking at Clarke.

“Snap out of it commander, the bell’s about to ring and we need to get to homeroom.”

Lexa shakes herself out of her Clarke-induced haze and rolls her eyes at the nickname before continuing her walk to her locker, quickly leaving Raven in the dust.

“Wait Lexa hold up! Please, my leg, I can’t…”

Lexa stops and slowly turns around to find the Omega leaning over and cradling her leg as best she can, and Lexa can tell she’s not going to be able to keep her balance for long. The Alpha goes over to her and rests a hand on her back for support. Raven remains bent over for a while, with her face scrunched up in pain and her breath labored. Lexa stands by and gently rubs her shoulder, offering what little comfort and solace she could give. Raven eventually stands up when the first warning bell rings, leaning against Lexa for support.

Lexa breaks the silence first, voice soft “Do you need me to get something? Some medicine, or some ice maybe?”

Raven shakes her head, still pressing her weight into Lexa so her crippled leg can rest. Timidly, the Omega lifts her head and looks up at Lexa. “Do you think you could give me a piggy back ride to class? It would really help if I could take some pressure off of it for a little while.” Raven says while pointing at her leg.

Lexa looks away and clenches her jaw in indecision. Raven notices and tries to make a joke out of it. “What, now that you’re with Clarke you won’t give anyone else piggy back rides anymore?” A small smile is playing on Lexa’s lips when she turns to face the small brunette. “Of course I’ll carry you, Raven” She bends down on her knees exactly the way she did for Clarke and Raven hops on her back and wraps her arms loosely around Lexa’s neck.

“But I don’t know if I’ll be able to carry you the whole way, since you’re pretty heavy and all.” Lexa says while laughing, and she laughs even harder when Raven swats her head.

“I’m not talking to you anymore, that was mean.”

“Oh come on Raven, you know I was just kidding. You’re light as a feather.” To prove her point, she lifts Raven off her shoulders effortlessly and holds her there for a good thirty seconds before gently setting her back down.

“See?” Lexa jokes, “Light as a feather.”

Raven huffs and crosses her arms, not impressed with Lexa’s antics. Suddenly, Lexa ducks quickly to the side of the hallway, giving Raven whiplash and nearly causing her to fall off the strong shoulders. If Lexa’s hands weren’t gripped firmly around her thighs, Raven would’ve been a goner. “What the hell was that for?” Raven whispers harshly, now clinging tightly to Lexa’s neck in case she decides to randomly change directions again. But Lexa doesn’t answer, just keeps her head down and tries to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Raven’s grip on Lexa tightens and her blood runs cold when she suspects Lexa’s trying to avoid Finn and Murphy. The thought stresses her out immensely, and she barely refrains from encouraging Lexa to walk faster. Alphas have always bullied and made fun of her because of her leg, but when she got to high school the verbal abuse quickly escalated into physical abuse as well. The only tactic she used against them, _could_ use against them, was avoidance, and that didn’t always work out.

Raven slumps in relief when she hears an upbeat, feminine voice shout “Lexa!” from further down the hall. The Omega hears Lexa mutter “Shit” under her breath, so she knows this is the person the Alpha is so desperately trying to get away from. Raven peeks up from her hiding spot behind Lexa’s neck to see a cheerful redhead Omega heading towards them with a bunch of her Omega friends following close behind. Raven’s had a few classes with her in the past, but she can’t remember her name.

The redhead stops right in front of Lexa and beams up at her, trying to give her most uplifting smile. Lexa fakes a genuine smile and Raven can hear the uneasiness in the Alpha’s voice when she greets the unwavering Omega. “Hey Olivia, how are you?” 

_"Olivia, that’s her name"_ Raven remembers as she observes her with vague interest.

“I’m pretty great.” Knowing her friends are whispering and watching the exchange behind her she steps a bit closer to Lexa before flirtatiously saying “But I could be better.”

Raven resists the urge to roll her eyes. Did she seriously just say that? She gets that the girl has a crush on Lexa, because from what she’s seen most Omegas in the school do, but if she wants to make an impression she’s going to have to try a little harder than that.

“Oh. Um, how so?” Lexa’s questioning voice brings her back to the painfully awkward but amusing conversation.

“I don’t know” Olivia says, as she steps even closer to Lexa, “Maybe we could get dinner sometime? Get to know each other a little better?”

Raven feels bad for the girl because she looks so earnest and sounds so hopeful, but Raven knows that as much as Lexa doesn’t want to hurt the girl’s feelings, she’ll have to reject her.

Lexa looks at her with a polite but sorrowful expression. “I’m sorry Olivia, but you know I can’t. I’m with someone else.”

Olivia’s eyes become sad for a second, but then she looks up at Raven like she’s noticing her for the first time. She gets a jealous, angry look on her face, even though she says “Okay” to Lexa with dejection apparent in her voice. Raven meets Olivia’s withering gaze unfazed. Even though Lexa’s not her Alpha, she can’t help but rub in the fact that _she’s_ the one Lexa’s carrying to homeroom, not the redheaded Omega. She wraps her arms tighter around Lexa’s neck and nuzzles into her shoulder, ignoring the harsh glare Olivia sends her before turning and walking back to her group of friends.

As soon as she’s out of sight, Lexa’s shoulders droop and she lets out a deep breath. Raven notices Lexa’s reaction and laughs “Does that happen to you a lot or something?”

“You have no idea.” Lexa replies over her shoulder. Raven teases her about it the rest of the way to homeroom, but Lexa has a grin on her face the entire time.

\-----

Morning classes go by quickly and soon Lexa is sitting alone in the cafeteria, waiting for the gang to arrive. She’s working on her chemistry homework when someone slides into a seat across from her. Wells looks up and acknowledges her with a slight nod while opening up some of his own assignments to work on. She nods back and goes back to her work. Her and Wells haven’t spoken more than ten words to each other since they met at the party, but their mutual respect for each other and Clarke help them get along fine.

Soon after Wells everyone starts pouring in, hungry and worn out from classes. Monty and Jasper are first, followed by Lincoln, Raven, and Octavia, then Bellamy and Echo, until Clarke is the only one missing, and Lexa taps her foot impatiently while she waits for her. Raven notices her distress and hands her an apple slice and some peanut butter to distract her. Just as Lexa’s about to take a bite, she feels arms wrap around her shoulders from behind and Clarke’s soothing scent engulfs her.

“I thought you would wait for me to get here before you started eating.” Clarke’s husky voice fills her ear, and she gulps before turning around in her seat.

“I was, I swear. Raven offered me a slice of her apple, I haven’t eaten any of mine yet, see” The Alpha rambles while pointing to her brown crumpled bag that contains her lunch, still folded and untouched. Clarke laughs and drops her bag before sliding in next to Lexa. She leans in and whispers amusingly “Lexa, its okay. I was just joking” before kissing her temple. Lexa feels her insides melting as she watches Clarke meticulously search through her lunchbox before getting frustrated and just dumping everything out on the table. She grabs Lexa’s bag and also empties it, before mixing both of their lunches together.

The day after Clarke and Lexa had first kissed was when the brunette sat next to Clarke in the cafeteria for the first time. The blonde had noticed Lexa’s small lunch and Lexa noticed Clarke’s endless lunch so they decided to combine their lunches together every day like a sort of potluck between the two. Lexa felt bad at first because Clarke obviously got the short end of the deal, since she had all the goodies and Lexa brought mostly fruit, but Clarke had waved it off claiming “she needed to eat healthier anyways.”

And now since she’s eating two good meals a day her energy level has spiked dramatically, making her performances in gym class a truly spectacular sight to behold. Her timing and coordination while playing any sport are flawless, and even Indra is impressed with her athletic ability. Lexa just hopes she can impress her even more tonight at tryouts.

As if she’s reading Lexa’s mind, Clarke gently nudges her shoulder and asks is she’s nervous about tryouts. “A little” Lexa admits, “But I’m just going to go in and play my best, and if that’s not enough for her, then I wouldn’t want to be on that team anyway.” The whole table is listening to her now, and while her immediate instinct is to shy away from all the attention, she holds firm and makes eye contact.

Octavia speaks up. “That’s pretty impressive. Most people would be really angry and hold a grudge against the person who cut them from a team.”

“Most people would” Lexa agrees, “But I’ve held grudges in the past, and it doesn’t get you anywhere or do anything for you. It just keeps you angry and bitter longer. It’s not worth it.”

The table falls silent after that. Everyone seems to be thinking about Lexa’s words, trying to figure out what they mean. Only Clarke knows what it’s really about, so she squeezes Lexa’s leg under the table in support.

“I think Monroe is trying out for the basketball team, too.” Monty states, bringing the group out of their silent reverie.

“Speaking of Monroe, where the hell has that girl been the last couple of days? I haven’t seen her anywhere.” Raven says as she finishes cutting her apple.

“You haven’t heard?” Jasper asks dramatically, “Monroe has a thing for Ms. Harper. The Bio-engineering teacher? The rumor is that they’ve been ‘eating lunch’ together in her classroom.”

Raven wrinkles her noise in disgust. “Ew, doesn’t Monroe know it’s like, illegal, to be affiliated with a teacher?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think her dick cares” Bellamy remarks sarcastically, and everyone barks with laughter. Bellamy is famous for his Alpha jokes, and Lexa has even shared some with him she heard from her old school.

Lunch is over too soon, and their playful banter comes to an end when the bell rings. Lexa picks up all of her and Clarke’s trash to throw away. Clarke gets up and follows her, which confuses Lexa. “Clarke the whole reason I picked up all the trash was so you wouldn’t have to walk all the way to the trash can.”

“I know, but I just wanted to tell you good luck in private before I leave. Not that you’ll need it of course. You’re a natural at sports.”

Lexa grins at the compliment. “Thank you. But you realize we can leave together, right? We’re in the same gym class.”

Clarke face-palms. “Ugh, I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you. My art teacher gave me special permission to skip today. I’m working on this piece for a competition, but unfortunately I’ve fallen a little behind”, Clarke sighs and runs her fingers through her wavy hair, which Lexa now notices is streaked with colored paint splashes, “And I know you wanted to partner up again to work on those soccer drills Indra’s having us do, but I don’t think I’ll finish if-” Lexa shushes her with a gentle finger to her lips.

The brunette gazes at her sympathetically. She knows how much art means to her. “Hey come here, I’m sure it’ll be fantastic. And the soccer thing isn’t a big deal, I’ll just partner up with someone else.” Clarkes sniffles as she sinks into Lexa’s open embrace, but revels in the way Lexa immediately starts rubbing her back in soothing circles.

“Clarke” The Omega looks up at Lexa, in awe of how she says her name so softly, so reverently, “You have nothing to worry about. I’ve seen your work, and it’s incredible. It doesn’t even compare to any of the art pieces I’ve seen in Walden.”

Lexa’s kind words about her work leaves Clarke speechless, and she quickly connects their lips in a short but passionate kiss, hoping to convey all her feelings for Lexa in one simple physical act. When she pulls away, Lexa’s eyes are sparkling, and Clarke swears she’s never seen anyone look more beautiful.

“I’ll probably have to stay after school for a little while, but I’ll try to make it to your tryouts as soon as I can.”

Lexa frowns. “Yeah definitely. Don’t even worry about coming to tryouts, just work on your project as long as you need.”

Clarke lets out a relieved sigh. “Are you sure?”

Lexa looks down at her with complete and utter adoration. “I’m positive.”

Clarke’s arms tighten around her for a moment, and they both just enjoy each other’s company and calming scents for as long as they can. By now almost everyone has left the cafeteria and started heading to their next class, and Clarke and Lexa reluctantly admit they should do the same. With one final kiss they part ways and promise to see each other tomorrow.

\-----

Lexa arrives to the gym about ten seconds before the final bell rings, and she’s never been more grateful for deciding to wear workout clothes to school. Indra gives her a disproving look when she walks in, but can’t write her up because she’s not technically late. Lexa quickly shrugs off her backpack and tosses it on the stage before sitting down on the floor near the bleachers. Indra begins giving instructions for the drills they are to perform today, but she stops paying attention when feels someone’s eyes on her.

The Alpha turns to find Murphy and Finn staring at her with disdain clear in their faces. Lexa’s narrows her eyes, but she remains calm and doesn’t give them the satisfaction of reacting to their immature attempts at getting a rise out of her. She’s come close though, especially when she thinks about Finn and what he almost did to Clarke. A low growl builds up in her throat and her hands are wound up into fists so tight her fingernails dig into her skin.

Lexa forces herself to stop thinking about Finn and focus on Indra, but the last thing she hears Indra say before everyone disperses is “Get a partner and warm-up.”

All the Alphas quickly pair up and grab a soccer ball to pass back and forth. Most of the Omegas pair up with either a Beta or another Omega, and soon it looks like everyone has a partner except for Lexa.

Lexa goes to get a ball and ignores the smug look on Murphy’s and Finn’s face when she passes them. The Alpha is desperately looking around, trying to see if there’s anyone she overlooked, when she spots Raven sitting all alone in the bleachers, looking down wistfully at all the activity she can’t participate in.

Lexa jogs over to her and tosses Raven the soccer ball when she’s close enough. Raven frowns and tosses it back. “Lexa what are you doing? You have to find someone to pass with.”

Lexa grins and throws the ball back to her. “I just did. Let’s pass.”

Raven’s face lights up for a split second before quickly disappearing back into a hopeless expression. “I wish I could, but I can’t. Indra won’t let me take part in any of the drills. It’ll just hurt my leg even more.”

Lexa takes her time walking up the bleachers to sit next to Raven, and when she does, she watches everyone exercise for a while before she speaks. “Raven, the last time I checked, Indra's not your mom. She can suggest all she wants that you sit out and watch, but she can’t force you. Also, we’re just passing the ball; you can even sit while we do it.”

Raven thinks it over for a minute while Lexa waits patiently, ball jiggling in her lap while she taps her feet against the bleachers. Raven finally faces Lexa with a motivated look in her eyes. “Let's go.”

Lexa gives her a devious little smile and helps her limp down to the bottom step of the bleachers. Indra’s distracted by some students asking her a question, so she doesn’t see when Lexa begins passing with Raven, the brown-haired Omega only using her good leg to kick.

Lexa sees the minute Indra notices them, but to her surprise, she doesn’t stomp over and tell them to stop immediately. Instead she observes from afar, taking in how happy and carefree Raven looks, the most Indra’s seen since Raven started going to school here. Indra even goes so far to exempt Lexa from playing in the scrimmage she set up, just so Lexa could keep passing with Raven and keeping her company. Indra had always assumed that keeping Raven away from physical activity would be the best way for her to heal, but she was wrong. Seeing Lexa interact and pass with her made Indra realize what Raven needed all along was to be involved and feel included. Lexa interpreted this quicker and better than Indra herself ever could have, and the Beta has no doubt in her mind that she wants Lexa to play on her basketball team.

\-----

Gym class is over, and basketball tryouts are about to begin. About thirty girls showed up, most of them Betas and a few of them Omegas. Lexa and Monroe are the only Alphas present, but Lexa doesn’t let that deter her. She needs to focus on what’s important, and dwelling on her chances of making the team won’t get her anywhere.

During her time passing the soccer ball with Raven, Lexa learned she was the basketball team manager and would be staying to watch the tryouts. Her job was to take stats during games, have water bottles ready for the players, and make sure the basketballs got locked up after practice was over. She looks over to the bleachers from where she’s stretching and sees Raven and Indra talking animatedly about something, probably basketball-related.

Lexa’s eyes travel higher up the bleachers and her blood boils at what she finds. Finn, Murphy, and a bunch of other Alphas are sitting all the way at the top of the bleachers, pointing down onto the court where the girls are stretching and laughing. She can tell just by following their eyes that they’re probably checking the girls out, undressing them with their minds and letting their lustful thoughts take over.

Lexa wants so badly to go up and punch the shit out of them, but Indra’s walking over to where the girls are all sitting at center court. Tryouts have officially begun. She starts by thanking them all for coming to try out for a position on the basketball team. She continues by saying that only fifteen out of the thirty girls that showed up will actually make the team. Lexa’s not surprised by this, since she figures about half the people that tried out would be cut. She was spot on. Indra finished her speech by telling them to run a few laps around the gym and to start a layup line while she set up the first drill.

All the girls immediately jumped up and started running, battling for a spot at the front of the pack. It wasn’t hard for Lexa to keep up, since she was easily the tallest player on the court. When she finished her laps, she got into the back of the layup line and looked up to the bleachers again.

The group of Alphas had moved down a couple of steps, and they weren’t trying to keep their leering of the girls discrete at all. Disgust creeps up in Lexa’s stomach, and she feels like she could throw up. Suddenly, she’s at the front of the line. A skinny Beta girl passes her the ball and she’s off; sprinting towards the hoop while keeping her dribbling low and consistent. She lets muscle memory take over and smoothly banks the ball into the hoop, before getting her rebound and passing it to the next girl in line.

Every time Lexa waits for her turn to complete a drill, she keeps a watchful eye on the bleachers. They keep slowly moving lower, and Lexa isn’t sure why. It’s not until they’re only five steps above Raven that she knows what they’re doing. She frantically tries to think of a plan to alert Raven of the Alpha’s presence, since she’s so wrapped up in whatever she was writing on Indra’s clipboard, but nothing comes to mind.

Lexa focuses on the drills Indra lays out, and she excels at most, but her playing gets noticeably sloppier the closer the Alphas get to Raven. Raven finally becomes aware of them when they’re in reaching distance of her, and Lexa can see the vulnerable Omega shaking with nerves from where she’s standing on the opposite side of the court. Lexa’s mad. No, Lexa’s _furious_ , because she can tell Murphy and Finn know she’s watching as they slide in on either side of Raven, sandwiching her between them.

Raven looks traumatized, and it’s not until she meets Lexa’s desperate gaze that she jumps into action. She quickly pushes the Alphas away and leaps off the bleachers, landing awkwardly on her bad leg. Raven howls quietly in agony, but she doesn’t stop to recover before running away from the gym as fast as her bad leg would allow her. The Alphas growl and get up to follow her, and that’s when Lexa knows she needs to get Indra’s attention, and fast.

But Coach Indra is paying no attention to Raven or the Alphas, only focusing on the girl’s performances while running her drills. Thankfully, Indra hears one of the taunts Finn yells at Raven and turns around just in time to see the Alphas barreling after the defenseless Omega. She quickly starts another drill to keep the girls occupied before jogging over to Lexa and pulling her aside.

“I’ve seen enough from you today Woods. Go help your friend.”

Lexa looks at her, a little hesitant. “What should I do to them Coach? It might escalate into a scuffle and I don't want to get in trouble for starting a fight on school property." 

Indra looks at her with what Lexa swears is a smirk on her face. “Schools over. I’ll vouch for you and make sure you don’t get in trouble. Those boys have been giving me hell for three years now. Go kick their asses.”

Lexa nods before swiftly turning and racing after Raven. Once she gets to the hallway, she stops, trying to hear where The Alphas and Omega might have run off to. She hears commotion down the hall in one of the classrooms, so she sprints to it and stops outside the door and listens. Lexa hears Raven, begging for the Alphas to stop whatever they’re doing to her, and her whole body tenses with rage.

She waits outside a minute to calm down and even out her breathing, while reminding herself that it’s been a while since her training. Taking on six Alphas will be a first for her, but protecting her friends is always worth it. With that, she wrenches open the door and enters with a low roar.

She finds Raven backed into a corner, barely able to stand. Finn, Murphy, and the other Alphas tower over her, releasing their most powerful pheromones to get her to submit. But what angers Lexa the most is how Finn is dangling Raven’s prosthetic leg right in front of her, just keeping it out of her reach. Raven finally collapses when she becomes too overwhelmed by all the dominant pheromones, and that’s when Lexa makes her move.

She knocks out three Alphas quickly and quietly before they even knew what hit them. Murphy, Finn, and Quint turn around and growl when they see Lexa standing over their unconscious friends.

Lexa speaks in a barely contained growl “Give Raven back her brace and leave now if you don’t want to end up like them.” She points to the limp bodies in front of her.

The Alphas have the nerve to laugh. “They were just caught off guard. No way could you have taken them out if they’d known you were here.”

“Okay”, Lexa gets into her best fighting stance, “Then how about we settle this. Fight me. Three against one. If I win, you have to leave Raven alone. No more harassing her or taking her brace. If I lose, you can beat me up as much as you want, and I won’t put up a fight.”

Murphy smirks and whispers something in Finn and Quint’s ears before nodding at Lexa. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

Finn goes and stands in front of Raven while Murphy and Quint circle Lexa, trapping her between them with no hope of escaping. Lexa won’t meet Raven’s worried gaze, too focused on keeping both Alphas within her line of sight.

Lexa waits patiently for one of them to attack. She alternates giving smug looks to the Alphas, and finally Quint snaps. He lunges at her and Lexa smirks. He just made this _so_ easy. Rule number one in a fight: Never make the first move. She easily sidesteps his attack and jabs him in the stomach, forcefully knocking him out in one blow.

Murphy uses Lexa’s distraction with Quint to his advantage, and comes up behind her to place a nasty kick to her left leg. Lexa stumbles but doesn’t fall. She growls and swings at Murphy once she regains her footing, but he’s light on his feet and quickly moves out of her reach.

Lexa realizes he won’t be as easy a target as Quint was, since he’s probably been in a bunch of scrap fights like this over the years. While keeping her attention on Murphy, Lexa takes a deep breath and tries to remember what her self-defense instructors taught her. Never make the first move, never let your opponent distract you to get the upper hand, and always use your surroundings to your advantage. The brunette quickly scans the classroom, and spots a divot in the floor about 10 feet directly behind Murphy.

A plan immediately comes to mind, and she grits her teeth and swallows her pride before throwing another lousy punch at Murphy. Again he avoids it easily, backing up even closer to the divot. She knows she’s making a fool out of herself and her fighting capabilities, but she keeps punching, until he’s standing right behind the small dent in the floor. With one last final swipe, Murphy unknowingly backs up into the hole and stumbles on his own feet. Using his unbalance to her advantage, she quickly lands a hard blow to his face.

While he’s down, Lexa quickly puts him in a headlock so he can’t make any moves against her. His eye is swollen, just like Lexa’s was after he’d thrown the dodgeball at her, and his nose is bleeding and looks like it might be broken.

Lexa adjusts her position so she can pull his face up close to hers, and all but hisses out “You made a deal, and I won. So tell Finn to drop the brace and get out of here.”

Murphy nods slowly, looking somewhat sorry, but the mischievous glint in his eyes makes Lexa nervous. He looks over at Finn and says two words: “Do it.”

Lexa looks up at Finn, and instead of handing the brace back to Raven, he’s still holding it and putting pressure on both sides. Lexa realizes what he’s trying to do when she hears the sound of plastic cracking and crunching away. He’s going to snap Raven’s brace like a twig, and Lexa’s too far away to stop it. She looks around frantically, trying to find something she could use to distract Finn, or maybe even throw at him.

Her eyes land on Murphy, who’s still pitifully laying, broken and battered, over the small divot in the floor. Without any thought she heaves Murphy up onto her shoulder and hurls him as hard as she possibly can at Finn, who’s looking on wide-eyed at the spectacle. When Murphy’s limp body crashes into Finn, the brace flies up into the air, and Lexa lunges and catches it before it hits the ground.

She walks over to Raven slowly, and cautiously approaches the terrified Omega with her neck exposed in submission and brace extended in her hand. Raven’s hands shake when she reaches for it, and it clatters to the ground after falling from her trembling embrace.

Lexa hears the groaning of all the beaten Alphas behind her, and snarls at them while placing her body protectively in front of Ravens. All six keep their eyes averted as they basically knock each other over in attempt to be the first one to escape.

Only when all the Alphas are out of the room and the door slams behind them does Lexa relax her stance and turn to look at Raven. The Omega is pretty much in the same state as Clarke was when she had gone into heat in the alley, upset and shivering and whimpering. Distressed pheromones come off of her in waves, and she clings to her brace like a toddler would to her doll.

Lexa sits next to her and waits for Raven to initiate contact, if she wants any. They sit side by side for ten minutes without saying anything, the only sounds being Raven’s sniffling while she tries to calm herself down. And when she noticeably scoots closer to Lexa, the Alpha doesn’t hesitate to wrap an arm around her trembling shoulders and pull Raven into her side, offering all the soothing pheromones she could.

Lexa doesn’t know how long they sit there for, but it’s a very long time before Raven stops shaking and crying. When she’s quieted down enough for Lexa to assume it’s okay to ask questions, she goes for it.

“Raven?” Lexa softly asks, noticing how Raven tenses in her arms a second before letting her guard down and leaning her head on Lexa’s shoulders.

Raven hums against her shoulder. “Hmm?”

The Alpha takes a deep breath before she speaks. “Why do Murphy and Finn and all them do that to you? I mean I know part of it is because of your leg…” Raven shudders some more, “… but it seems like there’s more to it than that.” Lexa finishes.

Raven sighs while shifting away from her, and Lexa’s afraid she’s gone too far. “It’s the same for you and me. They’ve bothered you before right?” Lexa nods her head, “They just don’t bug you a lot because you’re an Alpha, and you can defend yourself. I’m an easy target because of this” Raven taps her stub of a leg, and winces from the contact. “They hate me not because of who I am, or from what I’ve done, but because of where I live. Lexa, I’m from Walden too.”

Lexa’s eyes are like saucers, and Raven actually laughs at the dumbfounded look on Lexa’s face.

“You’re from Walden? H-ow?” Lexa finally manages to get out.

Raven shrugs. “Same as you. Scholarship. I was invited to transfer to Arcadia High sophomore year, so here I am. I don’t live there anymore, though. I live at Octavia’s house with Bellamy and their parents.”

Lexa leans her head back against the wall and lets this new shocking information sink in for a minute. _”Raven’s from Walden, just like me.”_ is the only thing running through Lexa’s mind, and it’s not until she hears Raven grimace that she looks over to the Omega. She’s trying to put her brace back on, and Lexa can see how much pain she’s in.

Lexa shuffles over so she’s sitting in front of her. “Wait don’t put that back on yet. I want to look at your leg.”

Raven looks at her timidly. “You want to look at it? Why, it’s ugy.”

Lexa gently takes the brace from Raven and sets it to the side. “Do you trust me Raven?”

The Omega looks up at her and curses silently, because how could she say no to the puppy dog face Lexa’s giving her? “Yes, I trust you.”

The Alpha nods and slowly lifts her hand up until its hovering right over the nub of her leg. “Can I touch it?” Lexa prods gently. Raven hesitantly nods, unsure of what Lexa’s planning to do.

The first contact Lexa makes with the marred skin Raven lets out a hiss. The Alpha doesn’t move her hand until Raven’s settled, then she slowly starts kneading the fleshy skin between her fingers. The more Lexa massages, the more comfortable Raven gets, until the Omega is basically purring in relief at the steady but soothing pressure.

Raven nearly whines when Lexa retracts her hand, desperate for more relief, but she quickly realizes Lexa can’t rub her damaged leg forever. She opens her eyes and sees Lexa looking down at her with a hopeful gaze.

“Did that help at all?”

 _Fuck yes it helped! This is the best my nubby leg has felt in years!_ is what Raven almost says, but quickly stops herself. “Yeah, it helped. How did you know how to do that?”

Lexa just shrugs and points to her bad leg. “Your prosthetic isn’t the problem, as much as you’d like to think. Your leg is the problem. Since you don’t have a calf, what’s left behind in the thigh are residual limbs, and they can get really sore if aren’t given proper attention.”

Raven stares at her in awe with a questioning expression on her face.

“I read a lot of Wikipedia” Lexa sheepishly admits.

Raven rolls her eyes. “That’s reassuring.”

“Hey, it helped your leg feel better didn’t it?” Lexa says defensively. 

The Omega laughs. “Yeah, it did. I guess Wikipedia’s not such a bad source after all.”

Lexa grins wickedly at her, and Raven feels her gratitude and appreciation for the Alpha choke up in her throat.

“Lexa?”

“Yeah what’s up?” Lexa turns and looks at her earnestly.

“Thank you… for everything you did for me today. I can’t even describe how much I appreciate it. I’ve never had anyone stand up for me like that before” Raven looks down in shame, “And I’m sorry I made you miss part of tryouts. I know how important that was for you.”

Lexa doesn’t say anything at first, just she reaches over and tilts Raven’s chin up until they’re face to face. “You will always be more important, I don’t care what anyone else tells you. I’ve got your back, Reyes.”

Raven’s about to cry again. This Alpha just stood up for her, fought for her, and promised to protect her even though she’s not Lexa’s Omega. She’s never felt more safe than she does in this moment.

“Hey Lexa, do you know what time it is?”

“It’s pretty late. Come on, I’ll take you home.”

Raven doesn’t even have to ask before Lexa’s on her knees, waiting for the Omega to slide onto her back. Once they’re all situated, Lexa starts the trek to Octavia’s place, laughing and joking with Raven the entire way.


	9. Update

Hey guys, unfortunately this isn't a new chapter. I just wanted to let y'all know that I have completely rewritten and reposted chapter one, because my writing was really terrible back when I first posted it. It is almost 3000 words longer than the original one, because I've added more details and a few other things that makes the story easier to understand. I will probably rewrite the next 2-3 chapters as well, so that the quality and technique of chapters 1-3 are equivalent to chapters 4-7. I'm about halfway through writing chapter 8, but I'm not sure if I'll post it while I'm rewriting or after I've finished rewriting everything.

Also, another reason why I haven't posted in so long is because when I first started writing this story, I had no plan whatsoever. I just kinda jumped in head first and wrote whatever came to my mind. Now I have a rough outline for the whole story that will hopefully allow me to avoid writer's block and ensure that there will be no plot holes.

And the third reason I haven't updated: school. I think we can all relate to this one.


	10. Rut and Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexa's in rut, Clarke gets caught up in the middle of it, and everything's happy at the end (which means shit's coming).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my main contribution to clexa week! Sorry it's been twelve thousand years since I last updated. This chapter has been finished for awhile, but I wanted to save it in case I couldn't finish another chapter before clexa week. I'm working on a one-shot now about Alpha Lexa and Omega Clarke in the modern universe, so hopefully I'll finish that either tomorrow or Saturday. 
> 
> P.S- Bugging me on my tumblr (@bakerbaker7) to write more and update more actually motivates me to finish chapters more than people leaving comments on ao3 so....

The next morning, Lexa’s in rut. She’s completely unprepared because it’s almost three weeks early, and the Alpha knows she has a certain blonde to blame for that. During her past ruts Lexa usually slept around with willing Omegas until her cycle passed, but now Clarke is the only Omega she can think about. Lexa’s imagination works in overdrive, thinking non-stop of how it would feel to take her, knot her, and mark her for the whole Ark to see that she’s _hers_. But Lexa berates herself every time she lets her hormones get the best of her, because Clarke is not an object, something for her to make a claim on. 

Lexa would never use Clarke to fulfill her own needs. Just the thought of it makes her sick. Clarke trusts Lexa, even after what Finn almost did to her, and Lexa would rather die than break that trust. Also, they’re too young to even consider mating. So from now on, Lexa will have to suffer her ruts on her own, resorting to physical exertion and almost non-stop masturbating to satisfy her raging desires.

Her exhausting routine gets her through two days. Anya makes herself scarce, staying out late and leaving early in the morning before Lexa can make her presence known. The house is completely drenched in Lexa’s scent, and the younger Alpha understands why Anya doesn’t want to stick around.

Throughout the day, Lexa moves back and forth between her room and her sister’s room, only because that’s where Anya has her punching bag set up. It isn’t ideal, but if Lexa didn’t have the rugged sand-filled sack to punch and kick she’d probably go crazy.

She is currently about half-way through the second day of her rut, and it is definitely at its peak. Her hands are almost as swollen as her cock, which she can feel pressing against her basketball shorts, aching and straining to be released. With gritted teeth the agitated Alpha throws in a new volley of powerful punches, causing the bag to break off the hook and fly across the room, again.

Lexa wipes her brow with a frustrated sigh and moves towards her room to restart the endless cycle of masturbating. Right when she gets in her bedroom, the doorbell rings at the front of the house. Lexa looks at the clock at her nightstand. It reads 4:00, which is way too early for Anya to come home. Lexa’s confused at who it could be, because she’s definitely not expecting anyone. She walks to the door in a trance, her fists clenched and mind muddled from the intensity of her rut.

As soon as she opens the door, she’s hit with the best and most mouth-watering scent she’s ever smelled. All the self-control she’d worked so hard to maintain disappears as she greedily takes in her creamy, blonde haired lover standing in front of her.

Clarke was not expecting the blast of dominant pheromones that hit her when Lexa opened the door, and tries to resist submitting as long as she can. Lexa snarls at being denied, and makes her fury known by letting out a loud, ferocious roar that has Clarke submitting to her in no time.

Lexa looks down at Clarke in approval, who is on her knees with her neck tilted at Lexa’s disposal. The Alpha licks her lips and pulls Clarke up roughly when she can’t stand the pulsating in her loins any longer. She drags the vulnerable Omega inside and pushes her against the wall, leaving no room for escape. Lexa is kissing and nipping at her neck when she hears Clarke whimper out “Lexa please s-top, this isn’t you.”

The broken plea makes Lexa return to her senses, and she softens her harsh grip on Clarke’s hips. She can feel Clarke shaking against her, and the Alpha drops her head, ashamed of herself for losing control.

Clarke shifts in Lexa’s arms in an attempt to get more comfortable, but in the process accidently grazes her thigh against the Alpha’s predominant erection. Lexa lets out a low growl at the contact and pants harshly, struggling to remain in control. She forces herself to remove any lustful thoughts of Clarke from her brain and centers herself on Anya’s teachings: Always treat Omegas with respect, and never take from them against their will.

Ever so slowly, Lexa’s eyes fade from black back to their normal sapphire hue, and her heart rate and breathing eventually slows down enough for Lexa to speak.

“Clarke, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what got into me, I-”

Her attempts at apologizing are silenced when Clarke places a single finger over Lexa’s lips, leaving the Alpha ashamed with a devastated look in her eyes. The Omega can see it happening, those rare instances when Lexa descends so deep into the depths and darkness of her mind that even Clarke has a hard time bringing her back. But this time, Clarke’s determined not to let it get that far.

“Lexa listen to me”

Clarke delicately holds Lexa’s face in her hands, gently forcing her to make eye contact. The blonde stands on her tippy toes and rests her forehead against her Alphas, her only focus being to soothe and convince Lexa that she didn’t do anything wrong.

“Lexa, this wasn’t your fault, it was my fault. Please believe that” Clarke pleads, desperately trying to convince her Alpha that she was not to blame.

While Lexa has calmed down considerably, her rut is still working in overdrive, leaving her mind unable to process Clarke’s words. Her thoughts are in a fragile state, with images of her father and what he used to do to her mother being the only thing she can focus on. Her father’s rut’s were scary time for Lexa, and even though they happened only twice a year, her mother’s cries and groans of pain that seeped through her parent’s door during his rut seemed to last forever.

Lexa takes pride in the fact that she’s nothing like her father, but her most recent actions with Clarke, quite possibly the love of her life, have her rethinking that. And that thought alone nearly breaks her.

Subconsciously she knows that what she did to Clarke isn’t even comparable to what her father did to her mother, but the look of fear ingrained on Clarke’s face is all Lexa can see or think about. Clarke was scared because of _her_.

It’s all too much for the Alpha to comprehend, and Lexa would have crumbled to the ground if Clarke hadn’t steadied her. She sees that she’s moving, but doesn’t feel her limbs doing any work. Lexa sluggishly looks to the side and sees her arm wrapped around Clarke’s shoulder, who is practically dragging Lexa towards her bedroom. The sight of Clarke struggling gets Lexa to move her legs and help out a little, even though her body is exhausted and feels like lead.

She makes it to the foot of her bed before passing out.

\-----

Vanilla.

That’s the first thing Lexa smells when she slowly begins to stir.

She’s laying on her bed, that much she can tell. Her stiff, uncomfortable mattress stubbornly refuses to mold to her form, resulting in her almost always waking up with a sore back.

The Alpha notices she’s a lot warmer than she usually is waking up, but is still too tired to give it real thought. Warm and relaxed, Lexa drifts back into a light sleep with a content sigh.

About twenty minutes later Lexa feels soft fingers slowly threading through her hair, causing the Alpha to hum in content. It’s not until these mysterious deft fingers start gently massaging her scalp that Lexa feels purrs rumble in her chest. She feels so at ease, exactly like she does when she’s with….

The realization hits her as the memories come crashing back and Lexa all but catapults out of Clarke’s embrace. She quickly shifts to the opposite end of the mattress, and curls into herself from shame and guilt. Lexa buries her head in her arms and breaths heavily, making her unable to hear Clarke’s slow approach.

Lexa flinches when she feels a light touch on her shoulder, her mind struggling to discern the difference between past and reality. Whenever Lexa misbehaved as a pup or committed the tiniest infraction, her father would let his anger and disappointment be felt through the sharp sting of his palm on Lexa’s soft skin. He would hit the same spot over and over until it was bleeding and raw, and his brutal tactics never failed to ensure that Lexa would never make the same mistake twice.

Lexa isn’t used to the feather touch she receives from Clarke and trembles anxiously at the blow that is sure to come.

But it never does.

The touches on her back remain gentle and predictable, and Lexa is entirely grateful for the way Clarke’s nimble fingers never stray from the comfortable pattern that the Alpha quickly grows accustomed to.

It only takes about ten minutes for Lexa’s rigid back to become limp under Clarke’s touch, and another ten for the panic and anxiety to completely leave her body. Images of her father are eventually replaced with golden blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes, making Lexa smile and sigh in relief.

The feeling of lips on her shoulder are what bring her back completely, and the sudden affectionate gesture makes her jump in surprise. She quickly turns around to face Clarke and looks confused for a second. Lexa subconsciously knew Clarke was still there during her little episode, but was so lost in flashbacks and bad memories that the sight of Clarke present and real in front of her is a bit of a shock. When Lexa speaks, her voice is hoarse and partially muffled by her pillow.

“I’m sorry Clarke, I didn’t mean to-”

“Shhh”

Clarke puts a finger to Lexa’s lips for the second time that day, effectively silencing her.

The Alpha pouts, feeling the need to express her sorrow and regret for what she did to Clarke earlier. She makes do by placing a gentle kiss to Clarke’s finger, which is still positioned in front of the Alpha’s parted lips. Lexa sees Clarke’s own lips turn up in small smile, and she removes her finger as a sign that Lexa can speak.

Even though Lexa has a million things she wants to say, she lets silence envelop them for a while. They speak through their eyes, somehow managing to convey everything they want to say while using no words at all.

They study each other, memorizing small details of their facial structures and outfits. Lexa marvels over the intricate designs of Clarke’s face, from her freckles, to the little beauty mark planted right above her lip, and somehow Lexa knows this is more intimate than sex, or even love-making. She has no desire to be anywhere else, but open and vulnerable in front of Clarke.

Lexa can feel her rut deep in her belly, but it is uncharacteristically calm, especially in the presence of an unmated Omega. She has a feeling this has to do with Clarke, but her brain is too tired to think about how Clarke can have this peaceful effect on her.

Just before she drifts off into a calm, peaceful sleep, Lexa looks past Clarke’s beautiful blue eyes for a brief second to her small window across the room. Right before she closes her eyes, she swears she sees a distorted image of her father, smiling menacingly down at her through the glass.

\-----

The next time Lexa wakes, it’s because of her rut. She doesn’t know how much time has passed, but it has been enough for the primal urge for her to mate and breed to reawaken. The second Lexa is awake she leaps off her bed and lands with precision and grace, her wiry frame alive and wild with sexual energy.

Clarke is no longer in her room, and although she is relieved Clarke had the sense to leave, the Alpha in her is whining and howling for her chosen mate to come back. Lexa shakes her head and sighs, before going to take a very long and cold shower.

Although the shower helped cool down her rut fever, it does not diminish her desires as much as she would have liked. Her cock still aches and yearns for any type of gratification or release. As much as it hurts, Lexa isn’t in the mood to masturbate, because she’s still disappointed with her lack of control towards Clarke. She doesn’t deserve the euphoric feeling that comes with release, so she’ll have to resort to boxing to let out her frustrations.

After her hands are wrapped in athletic tape, she leaves her room and begins to stalk down the hall towards Anya’s. She doesn’t make it far. A tantalizing scent reaches her nose, and she has to clench her fists to the point of drawing blood to keep herself in check.

Clarke.

She hadn’t left after all, and now her scent has Lexa trembling and shaking with barely restrained desire.

Lexa doesn’t remember moving, but suddenly she’s standing in front of Clarke, who’s sprawled out across the couch looking through an old photo album of Lexa as a child.

Lexa’s breathing heavily, almost panting at the sight of Clarke lying so divinely on her couch. The Alpha knows that Clarke is aware of her, she has to be, and it bothers Lexa that she is so blatantly ignoring her. Just when Lexa is about to reach out for her, Clarke points at the chair across the room and in a commanding tone that makes Lexa shiver, says one word.

“Sit.”

Lexa is shocked. She has never been commanded to do anything while she’s in rut, and while it turns her on a little, it leaves most of her enraged. A growl builds up in her throat, but just before she releases it, Clarke looks up at her and raises an eyebrow, as if daring her to do it.

She shuts Lexa down with one look, and it takes many long moments for the Alpha to control her harsh breathing and rein in her anger. She’s battling between what her body needs and what her mind wants. Her inner Alpha is furious, thrashing under the surface and telling her that she is Alpha, the one in control. But her mind is telling her to calm down and listen to Clarke’s orders.

One long glance down at Clarke and her mind is made up. Although Clarke looks calm and collected on the surface, she’s probably nervous to be handling an Alpha in rut that could easily overpower her. Lexa remembers the look on Clarke’s face when she was touching and kissing her against her will, full of fear and distress.

She swiftly turns away from the couch and plops down in the chair, determined to never make Clarke feel like that again. Clarke tries not to make it noticeable, but Lexa sees the sigh of relief she releases when Lexa did as she was told.

She waits.

Five minutes become ten minutes, ten minutes become thirty minutes, and thirty minutes becomes an hour.

Lexa watches Clarke the entire time. And Clarke doesn’t look up at her once. It drives Lexa wild. The Omega slowly flips through an album, and when she’s finished she picks up another one resting on the coffee table.

Her body is desperately calling out to Clarke, but Lexa notices that the more Clarke ignores her presence, the more her body seems to wind down and accept that it’s not going to get what it wants. Lexa feels her eyes slowly turning from black to green as the time passes, and after about an hour and a half Lexa is calmly sitting in the chair with her hands folded in her lap.

Her desire hasn’t deserted her, not even close, but her body has acclimated itself to Clarke’s pheromones enough so that Lexa’s thoughts are clear and her intentions are pure (enough).

When Clarke finishes looking through the last album, she finally looks up at Lexa. She doesn’t speak, but instead simply pats the spot next to her on the couch to say the Alpha can join her.

Lexa stands so fast she almost trips over her own feet, which has Clarke struggling to hold in her laughter. Right now Lexa doesn’t even care that Clarke’s laughing at her, because she’s been ignored for almost two hours and is happy for any acknowledgement at this point.

Like an excited puppy, Lexa bounds over to Clarke and smoothly slides into the spot next to her. Their shoulders are almost touching, and although being this close to her Omega and not being able to touch her is agonizing for Lexa, she wants Clarke to be the one who initiates contact.

After a couple minutes she finally laces her hands with the Alphas, and Lexa gently pulls their intertwined fingers up to her lips and pecks the back of Clarke’s smooth hand. Clarke chuckles and scoots over until her head is resting on Lexa’s shoulder.

They sit there for a little while, just content to be close to each other. Lexa remains calm, even though her rut is still working at full force.

“Before you start rambling an apology to me again, I want to make my own apology first. And actually, this is the only one that needs to be said.”

Lexa’s first instinct is to protest, but she bites her lip, curious to what Clarke has to say.

Clarke smiles at Lexa’s wide, questioning eyes, and quickly kisses the confusion off her face.

“It was my fault. The whole thing.”

Lexa’s jaw drops and her eyes widen even further as Clarke continues.

“You weren’t in school for two days and I should have known why. You haven’t missed a day of school since you started. You even came when you had a bad cold just because you didn’t want to miss classes.”

“It was really so I wouldn’t miss you” Lexa mumbles, but blushes when she realizes Clarke heard her.

Clarke places another quick kiss on her cheek for her sappiness. Lexa smiles, but it quickly turns to a frown when Clarke’s lips leave her face.

“Clarke, you couldn’t have known I was in rut. There are about a million other reasons why I couldn’t have been in school.”

Clarke raises her eyebrow in challenge.

“Really? Name one.”

Lexa paused, trying to think of possible reasons why someone doesn’t show up to school.

“Anya might have been in trouble?”

It came out as more of a question than a valid reason, and Clarke shook her head, clearly not impressed.

Lexa lets out a groan, frustrated at not getting her point across.

“That still doesn’t make it your fault. Not at all.”

Clarke thinks for a moment, trying to come up with a plausible response.

“Okay, maybe it’s not my fault.”

Lexa visibly cringes at Clarke’s words.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s your fault either.”

Lexa frowns, thinking about what Clarke said. Her eyebrows are creased in concentration, and it’s not hard for Clarke to tell that Lexa’ not grasping what she said.

“So if it’s not your fault, and it’s not my fault, than who’s fault is it?”

Lexa turns to face Clarke cautiously, as if she’s afraid to hear the answer, so Clarke squeezes her hand in a reassuring grip.

When Clarke answers she sounds thoughtful, almost as if she’s trying to understand the situation too.

“I honestly don’t think any of us are to blame. It’s kind of like one of those ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ things. You just can’t control what happens.”

Instead of comforting her, Clarke’s words make her feel worse. She _should have_ controlled herself, but instead acted like an Alpha in her first rut.

“But Clarke..”, she starts off tentatively, “ I almost took advantage of you. I made you submit against your will. I can’t even forgive myself, so how could you ever forgive me?”

Clarke’s Omega whines at how Lexa looks down on herself. She can feel the Alpha drifting away, receding into her mind to let her conscience berate her until she’s just a shell of herself.

“Lexa, I already have forgiven you.”

Lexa’s head shoots up, and Clarke’s heart breaks when she sees her Alpha on the verge of tears.

“How?”

Lexa’s voice is filled with doubt and insecurity, and Clarke is eager to soothe her Alpha and quell her fear. But Lexa needs to hear the truth first. Taking a deep breath, Clarke begins to speak.

“When you opened the door earlier and made me… submit…”

Lexa winces, and Clarke waits a few seconds before continuing on.

“I was scared. Scared out of my mind, actually. But you did something that made you stand out from all other Alphas. Something that Finn wouldn’t have done when he dragged me underneath those bleachers.”

Clarke looks up to find Lexa’s sea green eyes staring at her so intensely it makes her shiver.

“You stopped Lex”, Clarke says softly, “You stopped when you realized you were making me uncomfortable. That’s something that’s unheard of in this world.”

Lexa swallows, attempting to gulp down the information she just heard. And suddenly, she doesn’t feel so bad anymore. Yes, she admits she was still out of line and put her girlfriend in a very scary and stressful situation, but had ended up learning how to control herself if similar situations come up in the future. 

Lexa feels a soft weight press against her neck, and looks down to see Clarke’s body curling into her own. The Omega tucks her head in Lexa’s shoulder and places a soft kiss on the Alpha’s throat. The purr that rumbles in Lexa’s chest is one of both pride and contentment, even though she’s suffering through the peak of her rut.

They stay like that for what feels like an eternity before Clarke finally lifts her head and groggily smiles up at Lexa. Lexa smiles back, and leans down to capture her lover’s smile in a soft kiss.

It starts off languid and passionate, but grows into something more wild and erotic as Lexa eagerly deepens the kiss. Electrifying energy pulses through her veins, and Lexa’s shorts tighten to the point where it’s almost unbearable.

Lexa and Clarke are so into the kiss that they don’t hear Anya and set her things down in the kitchen. As soon as she turns the corner she sees Clarke making out with her baby sister, who is very much still in rut, and she tries to remain as casual as possible.

“Whoa… What’s going on here?"

Lexa jumps out of her seat and backs away from Clarke so fast it makes Anya’s head spin.

With wide eyes, Lexa scrambles to explain. “Nothing Anya, I swear we were just talking… and _other_ things” Lexa rushes out, “but we-”

“ ‘Other things’. Yeah, I could tell” Anya breaks in with an amused smile.

Lexa grumbles, but says nothing to justify herself.

Even though they’re now standing several feet apart, Clarke can clearly see the blush rising on Lexa’s face. She smirks, finding it extremely funny and adorable how flustered Lexa gets whenever Anya catches them showing PDA.

“You guys realize it’s past 8:30, right?”

Anya’s voice snaps them both back to reality, and as her words sink in Clarke panics and reaches into her back pocket for her phone. 8:38 is the time that stares up at her, and it’s enough to get her up and moving.

“I have to go. My curfew’s in twenty minutes” Clarke says as she zooms past Anya and stops just enough to give Lexa a quick peck on the cheek.

She’s almost to the front door when a gentle tug on her wrist holds her back.

Clarke turns around to see Lexa, panting with her face flushed, shaking her head profusely.

“You can’t walk back to Arcadia alone after the lights have dimmed. It’s dangerous and I won’t let you.”

There’s an underlying tone to Lexa’s words and Clarke knows that whatever happens, she won’t be walking home alone tonight. The Omega can also tell the effects of suppressing her rut are starting to take its toll on Lexa, leaving her a desperate and sweaty mess.

Anya steps between them to create space, and before Lexa can protest (or maybe growl?), Anya unleashes her pheromones on Lexa, not to make her submit but to remind her who’s older and who’s in charge.

“I’ll walk with Clarke.” Anya shoots Lexa a fierce gaze, as if daring her to challenge.

Of course, Lexa does.

“But you can’t get into Arcadia. The guards won’t let you through the gates without special identification.”

Anya curses under her breath and shakes her head. “Lexa you can’t take her. You need to stay here and work out your…”, Anya glances below Lexa’s waistline before quickly averting her eyes, “…problem.”

Lexa grunts and they both have a stare down, releasing more and more dominant pheromones the longer they refuse to bend to each other’s wills.

“Got it!”, Clarke exclaims excitedly, dramatically waving her phone above her head, “I just texted Bellamy, and he said he’d walk me home from the border.”

Lexa releases a low warning growl from her chest, unhappy that an Alpha other than her sister will be walking her Omega home. Deep down Lexa knows she’s thinking unreasonably, but her rut is clouding her thoughts and making her possessiveness go into overdrive.

Anya nods and gently begins ushering Clarke towards the door, knowing that the Omega’s scent is affecting the clarity of Lexa’s thoughts.

“Sounds good to me, let’s go.”

Anya all but charges out the front door, eager to leave, but Clarke lingers behind so she can say goodbye to her Alpha once more. Lexa stands in place, rooted to the ground as she fights off the inappropriate thoughts that threaten to consume her mind.

“Will you be okay the next couple of days by yourself?”

Lexa licks her lips and pulls her attention away from absentmindedly staring at Clarke’s gorgeous features. She sees the concern clearly shining in Clarke’s eyes, and gratitude and appreciation for this wonderful creature well up in her chest.

In soft whispers filled with reverence and awe, Lexa quells Clarke’s worries and gives her girlfriend’s hand a reassuring squeeze.

Lexa desperately wants kiss Clarke before she leaves, but thinks better of it. Her hormones are raging, and she’s already lost control more than once today. Instead she watches with hungry eyes the sway of Clarke’s hips as she walks away, and Lexa curses her biology for wanting something she can’t yet have.

Lexa’s eyes remain glued to the door until the last wisps of Clarke’s blonde hair are out of sight. She sighs, sad and frustrated that she won’t be able to see Clarke for another three, possibly four days, depending on how long her rut lasts.

Lexa’s just about to turn towards her room when Anya pokes her head back in the door. She’s breathless and panting, and it makes Lexa chuckle in amusement at how out-of-shape her sister is.

“I don’t want to ask this just as much as you don’t want to hear it, but do I need to buy any pregnancy prevention for Clarke on the way to her house?”

Anya rushes it out so quickly and awkwardly that Lexa almost doesn’t understand her. When the words finally click, Lexa blushes so hard that not even her rut fever can hide the deep red shade appearing ever so slightly on her cheeks.

“Um, no, we were j-ust kissing and, uh-” Anya cuts her off.

“Thanks kid but I don’t need to know the details. God knows it would have been more awkward if I’d had to ask Clarke.”

Although from the way Anya refuses to meet her eyes and awkwardly shifts back and forth, Lexa’s not so sure.

\-----

Lexa’s rut ends up lasting until early Saturday afternoon. As soon as it's over Lexa falls into a deep sleep, not waking up until the next afternoon. Lexa was completely content to sleep until Monday morning, and the only thing that enticed Lexa out of bed was the smell of bacon wafting from the kitchen.

Her belly rumbles as she pads towards the heavenly smell, begging for sustenance since Lexa hadn’t eaten anything in nearly two days. After eating two full plates of food, she begs Anya to make more, and doesn’t stop eating until she’s completely and entirely stuffed.

The rest of the day passes by slowly for the Alpha, and Lexa grows more restless with each hour that passes. She hasn’t seen Clarke in almost five days, and it’s unnerving how much the distance affects Lexa. Anya teases her, calling her a lovesick puppy, and it gets so bad that Lexa ends up going to bed at 7:30. She falls asleep quickly, and soon enough her alarm clock is blaring, telling Lexa it’s time to go to school.

Usually Lexa is lazy and groggy in the mornings, but not today. She jumps out of bed with a burst of energy and showers in record time. She doesn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to Anya, as she’s out the door before her sister even makes it to the kitchen.

The drive to Arcadia High is refreshing and short (Lexa may have speeded just a little), and nothing less than a huge grin comes to the Alpha’s face when she sees the looming building of her high school come into view. Lexa never thought she’d be happy to go to school, but Arcadia High is doing a hell of a good job of surprising her.

As she walks through the familiar hallways, there’s a swagger in her step and a confidence in her aura that have even the Alphas and Betas staring and moving aside. The Omegas are swooning and all but falling at Lexa’s feet, but she doesn’t notice, because the lovesick Alpha has only one Omega and destination in mind.

When she turns the next corner her locker finally comes into view, and the sight she’s met with is everything she wanted to see and more. The whole gang is hanging around her locker chatting, leaving no doubt that they’re waiting for her to arrive. Even Bellamy’s there, along with Wells, Monty, Jasper, Monroe, Octavia, Raven, and of course, Clarke.

About halfway to her locker, Monroe spots her, and suddenly both Raven and Octavia are barreling towards her (Octavia only won because of Raven’s bad leg, according to Raven). She’s bombarded with hugs from (almost) everyone, with Clarke being the last to approach and pull her into a giant embrace. And as Clarke nuzzles her face into Lexa’s neck, she feels the most content she’s felt in a while.

Much to Lexa’s delight, the gang scatters shortly after welcoming her back to give her and Clarke some privacy.

As soon as all of them are out of earshot, Lexa’s face turns serious and her stomach drops at what she’s about to do. Clarke notices the change in her Alpha’s pheromones and throws her a concerned look, but bites her tongue when she sees the look on Lexa’s face. Lexa has something she wants to say, and Clarke knows if she ruins the moment the Alpha might never regain the courage to say whatever she was going to say.

So Clarke waits, pensively, until Lexa sighs and finally looks to with those deep, sapphire eyes Clarke adores so much.

“I just want to apologize again for what happened the other day.”

Clarke stiffens, ready to argue that she didn’t need to apologize, but immediately stops when Lexa gives her a pleading, desperate look, as if begging Clarke to let her continue. She huffs but doesn’t say anything, and Lexa takes that as permission to keep going.

“I know you told me I don’t need to apologize again, but now that my rut is over it will be more sincere-”

As soon as the word ‘rut’ came out of Lexa’s mouth, Clarke had heard enough.

“No, Lexa stop.”

Lexa falters, her body fidgeting with pent up energy and nerves.

“You think that because you apologized to me while you were in rut, you need to apologize to me again?”

Lexa shifts nervously under her girlfriends gaze. There’s a fire alight in her eyes, and Lexa knows better than to get on Clarke’s bad side while she’s potentially angry.

“No?” Lexa guesses, sounding more like a question than an answer.

Clarke finally sees how uncomfortable she’s making Lexa and mentally curses, because that was never her intention. She brings her hand up to Lexa’s chin and gently tilts it so that Lexa can’t look anywhere but at Clarke.

“Do you remember the day I came back to school after my heat?”

At this Lexa perks her head up and nods, because she remembers that day very well.

When I was insecure about still being in the final stages of my heat, do you remember what you said to me?”

Lexa smiles, remembering what she said word for word. “I said ‘Heat or no heat, you’re still Clarke Griffin.’”

Clarke beams. “Exactly! And you know what that means?”

“What?” Lexa furrows her brows, not understanding where this is going.

“That rut or no rut, you’re still Lexa Woods. That means that you don’t need to apologize again for something you already said sorry for, even if you were in rut.”

Lexa lets that sink in for a minute, ignoring the first warning bell as she carefully contemplates Clarke’s words.

When her thoughts finally settle, she turns to Clarke and notices the Omega has the same look _she_ gets when she’s in deep concentration.

“What’re you thinking about?”

Clarke’s answer surprises her.

“That we should just forget about what happened Thursday night. It happened, it’s done. The best way to not let our biology control us is to not even acknowledge it. Deal?”

Lexa’s whole body sags with relief, and she fervidly shakes Clarke’s hand in agreement. Clarke walks a little ways in front of her and turns back with a smirk.

“Walk me to homeroom?” Clarke asks with puppy dog eyes that she knows Lexa can’t resist.

Lexa grins and links her hand with Clarke’s. “Like you even have to ask.”

They begin walking down the hall, but not even a minute passes before Clarke suddenly stops and playfully hits her Alpha on the head. “And why didn’t you tell me your _birthday_ was coming up!?”

Lexa gives her an exasperated, somewhat confused look, not understanding where she got that information or how her demeanor can change so fast.

Then it all clicks.

“Anya told you when you she walked you home, didn’t she?”

Clarke didn’t even need to reply, because there’s no way she could have found out from anywhere else.

Lexa feels eyes on her and glances down to find Clarke looking up at her expectantly and realizes she actually wants her to answer the question.

“Well, birthdays have just never been a big deal for me growing up. We’ve never had enough money to get or do anything to celebrate, so Anya and I just sort of treat birthdays as any other day.”

They keep walking, and it’s only when there’s been complete silence for two whole minutes does Lexa look down to see Clarke staring at her in horror.

“Is that not what you usually do, or..?” Lexa asks awkwardly, silently cringing when she feels how sweaty her hands have become. _Clarke probably thinks my hands are gross._

“Lexa Woods, I am going to make sure this is the best birthday you’ve ever had, and that's a promise.”

And with that Clarke gives her a short peck on the cheek and ducks into her homeroom without looking back. A few seconds later the bell rings, and while Lexa rushes to get to class she wonders what on _earth_ Clarke could be planning.


End file.
